ONE hundred elephants are giving a former county woman the strength to keep her family in Africa.

Alice and Hugo Fircks fled their tobacco farm and Robert Mugabe's self-styled war veterans with their lives. They are determined not to run again.

Now Alice, formerly Leigh, of Yarkhill Court, Yarkhill and her husband are finding solace in photographing elephants, threatened with a similar plight.

"As Man continues to overpopulate earth, so all other animals are squeezed out of their habitats and it is only us who can help keep them in the wild," says Hugo.

An exhibition of his photographs and photo art canvasses (created by adding oil paint to canvas prints), One Hundred Elephants, will be shown at London's Arndean Gallery, Piccadilly from next Monday until November 29 - to be opened by renowned wildlife artist, David Shepherd.

Dreams

Alice and Hugo, who married at Belmont Abbey, Hereford, in 1990, moved to Zimbabwe to pursue their dreams and take on the Fircks' family farm.

All was well for nine blissful years. Hugo, a former officer in the Lifeguards, won awards for his tobacco, and managed 300 workers and their dependants with military precision. The farm was a haven of tranquillity and inspiration.

Their dreams crumbled under the despotic regime of Robert Mugabe. Intimidated by self-styled war veterans, the couple, and their children, Zoe, Ivan and Dima, were forced to flee with their lives.

As supporters of the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, Hugo had twice been imprisoned on trumped up charges, and feared a third term.

Now living quietly in Harare, the couple are determined to remain. In a letter to the Hereford Times, Alice's mum, Gilla Leigh, writes about her immense pride in their courage.

Trauma

"Out of the trauma of losing their livelihood and home, two good things have come.

"Firstly, Hugo has taken up a highly successful career to provide for his family.... Secondly Alice has put her heart and soul into a new project, learning to fly small aeroplanes.

"As she is adamant the family will never leave Africa, this means that with a pilot's licence, wherever they are in the bush, she can still get the children to school and do her shopping!"