Lt-Col. Edward James "Jim" Corbett CIE VD (1875-1955)
Even more than his mother, Mary Jane Prussia, there is a wealth of information about Jim Corbett on the Web. I’ll include links to some of the resources available, and I will try and offer a summary and link Jim into the wider family.
Jim was the second to youngest of Mary Jane’s “tribe” of children. As he grew up he immersed himself in the natural world that surrounded the places where he lived. At a very early age, in addition to learning to recognize flora and fauna, he demonstrated considerable talent in shooting with a rifle. Combined with tracking skills he became a government licensed hunter and killer of man-eating tigers, which had become a significant threat to the general population.
He served during the world wars by training local men in jungle skills, but an illness caused him to be discharged from active service. During his time of convalesces he developed another of his talents, writing stories related to his jungle experiences. His first book was a success, and lead to a number of others, and a film was made based (rather loosely) on his experiences.
He continued to promote the environmental cause, a man before his time in many ways. However, with the partition of India in 1947 Jim left India for Kenya, accompanied by his sister, Maggie. There he continued to write and photograph the local wildlife. His last book detailed his experience of accompanying the young princess Elizabeth to the game lodge built in a tree, which is where she became Queen Elizabeth II on the death of her father.
Jim died in April 1955, shortly after his last book was published, and is buried in St Peter’s Cemetery in Nyeri, Kenya. In 1956 the Hailey National Park, which had been established in 1936 in the Nainital District where Jim grew up, was renamed the Jim Corbett National Park in Jim’s honour after his death. His speaking out for the conservation of India’s wildlife, including the tiger, has been recognised by the Indo-Chinese tiger subspecies being named “Panthera tigris corbetti”.
Jim was a Companion of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire (CIE), an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria but which appointments were terminated after partition in 1947 and became dormant in 2010.
He was also awarded the Volunteer Officers' Decoration (VD), which was instituted in 1892, "intended to reward efficient and capable officers of the Volunteer Force who had given 20 years' service. The Volunteer Force was the precursor of the Territorial Army and the decoration became obsolete when the TA was formed in 1908" (National Archives).
There are two Jim Corbett Foundations, one based in India and one in Canada. The button below gives access to a PDF file that comes from the founder of the Canadian foundation gives a fuller account of Jim's life, but I cannot verify its factual accuracy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Corbett
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Corbett_National_Park
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/49663837/edward-james-corbett