Gordon Lennox, adventurer and outlaw, was one of several
persons using the pseudonym 'Scotty Smith'. He claimed to be George St Leger
Gordon Lennox, born in Perth, Scotland, in 1845, but no supporting evidence has
been found of his connection to the well-known family Gordon Lennox. In fact,
most information about him is of unknown reliability. He claimed to have had a
good education, including some training in land surveying and veterinary
science. At the age of 18 he joined a cavalry regiment, served in India for
some time, travelled to Australia and got in trouble there, spent some time in
the United States, and then returned to Europe, where he fought for the French
in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) and in Spain in the war of 1872-1876.
In 1877 Lennox came to the Cape of Good Hope as a member of
the Frontier Armed and Mounted Police. He served in the border regions of the
colony and as a farrier in Kokstad and then in King William's Town. There he
deserted and started his career as an outlaw in the present North West Province
and northern part of the Northern Cape, up to the Namibian border. He appears
to have stolen mainly from the rich and to have supported the poor. In 1888 he
became a prospector for a while, but without much success. In 1892 he married
Susarah Magdalena ("Sarie") van Niekerk, with whom he had seven children. At that time he had settled on the farm Leitland's Pan (later Lentlandspan), near
the junction of the Molopo and Kuruman rivers, where, among other activities,
he was a paid agent in the service of British Intelligence and gathered
information about developments across the border in German South West Africa (now Namibia). During
the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) he again worked for British Intelligence with such success
that, after the war, the Cape government granted him free pardon for his
previous misdeeds. He settled in Upington in 1909, where he remained for the
rest of his life. During World War I (1914-1918) he was attached to the staff
of military intelligence of the Union Defence Force with the rank of warrant
officer, to gather information about the movements and activities of the rebel
forces.
On his many trips in the Kalahari Lennox collected a variety
of specimens of scientific interest. He had a permit from the Cape government
to collect Bushman skeletons, sold several skeletons to Dr Porch of Vienna and to
Dr L.A. Peringuey* of the South African Museum, and in 1910 presented five
skeletons believed to be of mixed Bushman and Bantu origin to the McGregor
Museum in Kimberley. There was much interest in such specimens at the time, but
his permit was withdrawn in 1912. In 1910 he also supplied the McGregor Museum
with a variety of Bushman artefacts, including karosses, hair-chains, a
necklace, powder pots and snuff boxes, and was thanked for his efforts to make
the collection as complete as possible. More artefacts from Gordonia followed
the next year. He subsequently donated reptiles and amphibians from Gordonia (1912),
spiders (1913), and more reptiles, amphibians, spiders and solpuges (1914). Around
this time he acted as a guide for several expeditions into the Kalahari, among others by
Miss D. Bleek* and Miss M. Wilman* (1910); Major C.A. Anderson, an expert in
ground water resources (1913); and by Mr R.W. Thornton* to obtain Afrikaner
sheep for the Grootfontein Agricultural College (1914). He later sent Thornton
various grass seeds from the Kalahari for the latter's experiments with
drought-resistant grasses.
Lennox died during the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919. One of his sons was also named George St Leger Gordon Lennox.
