[2] He joined the British Army in 1885 at the age of seventeen and eventually attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel[3] and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO).

Despite the building of thorn barriers (bomas) around the camps, bonfires at night, and strict after-dark curfews, the attacks escalated dramatically, to the point where the bridge construction ceased due to a fearful, mass departure by the workers.

Along with the obvious financial consequences of the work stoppage, Patterson faced the challenge of maintaining his authority and even his personal safety at this remote site against the increasingly hostile and superstitious workers, many of whom were convinced that the lions were in fact evil spirits, come to punish those who worked at Tsavo, and that he was the cause of the misfortune because the attacks had coincided with his arrival.

The man-eating behaviour was considered highly unusual for lions and was eventually confirmed to be the work of a pair of rogue males, who were believed to be responsible for as many as 140 deaths.

[citation needed] Various theories have been put forward to account for the lions' man-eating behaviour: poor burial practices, low populations of food source animals due to disease, etc.

A modern analysis shows one of the lion's skulls had a badly abscessed canine tooth that could have hindered normal hunting behaviour.

With his reputation, livelihood, and safety at stake, Patterson, an experienced tiger hunter from his military service in India, undertook an extensive effort to deal with the crisis.

[citation needed] The workers and local people immediately declared Patterson a hero, and word of the event quickly spread far and wide, as evidenced by the subsequent telegrams of congratulations he received.

Although the rails were destroyed by German soldiers during the First World War, the stone foundations were left standing and the bridge was subsequently repaired.

[5] The workers, who in earlier months had all but threatened to kill him, presented Patterson with a silver bowl in appreciation for the risks he had undertaken on their behalf, with the following inscription: "SIR, – We, your Overseer, Timekeepers, Mistaris and Workmen, present you with this bowl as a token of our gratitude to you for your bravery in killing two-man-eating lions at great risk to your own life, thereby saving us from the fate of being devoured by these terrible monsters who nightly broke into our tents and took our fellow-workers from our side.

On returning to England, Patterson had the head of the eland mounted, where it was seen by Richard Lydekker, a member of the faculty of the British Museum.

Patterson had Blyth buried in the wilderness and then insisted on continuing the expedition instead of returning to the nearest post to report the incident.

[13] He returned home, but was again called for service when on 17 January 1902 he was appointed to command the 33rd Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry, with the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel.

In 1913, the militias were organised into the 'Ulster Volunteer Force' (UVF) and vowed to resist any attempts by the British Government to impose Home Rule on Ulster.

[21] Colonel Patterson is believed to have been part of this operation with some of the weapons being stored at Fernhill House, HQ of the West Belfast regiment.

Although he was himself a Protestant, he became a major figure in Zionism as the commander of both the Zion Mule Corps and later the 38th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers (also known as the Jewish Legion)[22] which would eventually serve as the foundation of the Israeli Defence Force decades later.

He energetically continued working toward the establishment of a separate Jewish state in the Middle East, which became a reality with the statehood of Israel on 14 May 1948, less than a year after his death.

With the assistance and support of the Israeli government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on 4 December 2014, the remains of Patterson and his wife, were re-interred in the Avihayil cemetery where some of the men he commanded are buried.