James Stevenson-Hamilton (2 October 1867 – 10 December 1957) served from 1902–1946 as the first warden of South Africa's Sabi Nature Reserve, which was expanded under his watch and became Kruger National Park in 1926.

[6] He was promoted to lieutenant on 20 February 1890, and to captain on 1 June 1898,[5] the same year as he joined the Cape-to-Cairo expedition under the leadership of Major Alfred St. Hill Gibbons.

After they had "Tried to steam up the Zambesi in flat bottomed launches and fought their way well beyond the Kariba Gorge",[7] they had to abandon their boats and explore Barotseland on foot.

It was he who first pleaded "for setting aside certain areas where game could be protected and where nature could remain unspoilt as the Creator made it".

In 1891, Kruger managed to amend existing game laws, and the state started providing protection for some animal species.

[12] As a "bachelor, a man of means and a professional soldier,"[7] Lagden deemed him fit for the job even though the post was viewed as unusual and unheard of.

Stevenson-Hamilton signed a two-year contract as warden, found a map of the area and set off with a wagon, oxen, provisions and ammunition for an uncharted and malaria-filled land described to him as the "white man’s grave".

[11] Game-ranging was still a new term and this allowed Stevenson-Hamilton to have free rein over the Sabi Nature Reserve, his only order from Lagden being "to make himself generally disagreeable"[7] and to try to eliminate poaching.

He stationed himself briefly on the banks of the Crocodile River in South Africa, familiarising himself with the land and animals, but soon moved and settled at Sabi Bridge, which is now called Skukuza.

His focus then went back to Johannesburg and Pretoria where he started to convince companies in the vicinity to lend him land, eventually giving him a huge block in a remote corner of Transvaal.

[7] A bronze statue created by the artist Phil Minnaar can be seen in Skukuza depicting Paul Kruger, Piet Grobler and Stevenson-Hamilton, the founding fathers of the park.