Wayne Barry Clark (Hervey, 1989 – 1992)

On 11 July this year, the hunting community lost another private hunter when Wayne Barry Clark, 37, was fatally wounded by a buffalo during a hunt in Lolkisale in Masailand, Tanzania.

Wayne was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, on 13 March 1975 to parents Liz and Bruce Clark. He attended Falcon for his high school education. A boy with a keen sense of adventure, he was passionate about wildlife and the bush and enjoyed nothing more than hunting, camping and fishing with his mates. He qualified as a PH in 1997 and hunted regularly throughout South Africa, Zimbabwe and Tanzania. He was hugely experienced and had a wonderful rapport with clients, totally committed to ensuring that everything was done to maximise their hunting experience. He was affectionately known as Bwana ‘Haraka’ to his Tanzanian camp staff – Swahili for ‘Mr Fast’ – because of his constant urging to get everything done on time.

A man both humble and proud, compassionate yet strong, respectful and polite yet the life and soul of every party, Wayne was the original ‘Mr Nice Guy’. His warm, engaging smile found instant rapport and we will always remember the jokes, the smiles and the laughter that filled the room when he was around. Beloved husband of Cathy. Wayne also leaves dad Bruce and Vicky Clark, Mum Liz and Lewis Meal and his sister Carol and Brian van Blerk.

Requiem
Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

The Clark Family, writing in The Falcon Magazine, 2012