It was the lifelong project of English aristocrat Sir Stewart Gore-Browne, who fell in love with the country after working on the Anglo-Belgian Boundary Commission determining the border between Rhodesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
[1] From his boyhood, Gore-Browne had an ambition to own an estate like that of his aunt, Dame Ethel Locke King, at Weybridge in England.
Arriving at Lake Shiwa Ngandu in April 1914 with his Bemba servants and porters, he selected the location to settle at.
World War I interrupted his plans but increased his desire to return to Shiwa Ngandu and achieve his dream.
[citation needed] Hundreds of labourers were employed, and with the help of oxen to haul the bricks, a substantial house was constructed within a few years.
However, the building work did not stop until the late 1950s; an imposing gatehouse, a tower, colonnaded porticoes, courtyards, additional rooms all added to its size and stature.
However, his projects were heavily subsidized by Dame Ethel Locke King, with whom he was obsessively attached and corresponded from his childhood until her death.
Six months later in 1992, the Harveys were murdered at Shiwa Ngandu by three African National Congress (ANC) members living in exile in Zambia.