Hesketh Hesketh-Prichard

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Hesketh Hesketh-Prichard
British India
Died14 June 1922(1922-06-14) (aged 45)
Gorhambury, Hertfordshire
, England
NationalityBritish
Known forHunter, explorer, writer, cricketer, soldier
Spouse
Lady Elizabeth Grimston
​
​
(m. 1908)​
Children3
Cricket information
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm
Bowler
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1900–1913Hampshire
1902–1904London County
1904–1913Marylebone Cricket Club
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 86
Runs scored 724
Batting average 7.46
100s/50s –/–
Top score 37
Balls bowled 14547
Wickets 339
Bowling average 22.37
5 wickets in innings 25
10 wickets in match 5
Best bowling 8/32
Catches/stumpings 44/–
Source: Hesketh Hesketh-Prichard at ESPNcricinfo, 18 March 2024

Hesketh Vernon Prichard, later Hesketh-Prichard

First World War
. Concerned not only with improving the quality of marksmanship, the measures he introduced to counter the threat of German snipers were credited by a contemporary with saving the lives of over 3,500 Allied soldiers.

He also explored territory never seen before by a European, played

travel writer
.

His many activities brought him into the highest social and professional circles. Like other turn-of-the-century hunters such as Theodore Roosevelt (who was an admirer), he was an active campaigner for animal welfare and succeeded in seeing legal measures introduced for their protection.

Early life

Hesketh-Prichard was born an only child on 17 November 1876 in

Major-General Browne William Ryall.[3]

Hesketh-Prichard and his mother returned to Great Britain soon after, and lived for a while at her parents' house, before moving to

prep school in Rugby.[4] In 1887 he won a scholarship to Fettes College, Edinburgh; his entrance paper was an essay on "Summer Sports".[2] He excelled at sports there, particularly cricket, at which the school magazine described him as "The best bowler we have had for a long time. Fast right hand with a good break back on a bowler's wicket."[5] He was invited to play for Scotland against South Africa, but declined as he would have been unavailable to play against Fettes' rival Loretto School.[5] After school, he studied law privately in Horsham, West Sussex. He passed the preliminary exam, though he would never practise as a solicitor.[2]

Writing and exploration

First publications

Hesketh-Prichard, then nineteen, wrote his first story "Tammer's Duel" in the summer of 1896, which his mother helped him refine, and was sold soon after to

Cyril Arthur Pearson, who suggested he write a series of ghost stories for his monthly Pearson's Magazine.[7] Hesketh-Prichard and his mother created a series of stories around the character "Flaxman Low"', the first psychic detective of fiction, though they were disconcerted to find the tales promoted by Pearson as "real".[7] The collected work was published as The Experiences of Flaxman Low in 1899.[7]

In 1897, he and his mother worked on the plot of A Modern Mercenary, the stories of Captain Rallywood, a dashing diplomat in Germany.[2] It was published by Smith and Elder the following year. He travelled to South America in February 1898, seeing the construction work for the Panama Canal, but returned after developing malaria while in the Caribbean.[7]

Commissioned trips

Lake Argentino
, Patagonia, which Hesketh-Prichard explored in 1900

In 1899 Pearson chose Hesketh-Prichard to explore and report on the relatively unknown republic of Haiti, wanting something dramatic with which to launch his forthcoming Daily Express. Kate Prichard accompanied her son as far as Jamaica; in later years she would often travel with him to remote destinations in a time when it was uncommon for a woman of her age to do so. Hesketh-Prichard travelled extensively into the uncharted interior of Haiti, narrowly avoiding death when someone tried to poison him.[1] No white man was believed to have crossed the island since 1803, and his trip provided the first written description of some of the secret practices of "vaudoux" (voodoo).[8] He later wrote a vivid account of his travels in the popular book Where Black Rules White: A Journey Across and About Hayti.[9]

Pearson welcomed his reports, and on his return immediately commissioned him to travel to

Lake Argentino, finding one of its feeder lakes, naming it Lake Pearson after his patron, and their connecting river Caterina after his mother.[10] Lake Pearson was subsequently renamed Lake Anita, but the Río Caterina, known for its salmon, retains the name Hesketh-Prichard gave it.[11] The surrounding area is now part of Los Glaciares National Park.[12]

Although he found no traces of the creature after a year overseas and 10,000 miles (16,000 km) of travel, he did provide compelling descriptions of unknown areas of the country, its fauna and inhabitants.

southern South American cougar Puma concolor concolor). The grass species Poa prichardii was named after Hesketh-Prichard after he brought back a specimen.[13] He compiled the story of his travels in the well-received Through the Heart of Patagonia.[9] In 2000, on the hundredth anniversary of both Hesketh-Prichard's trip and the newspaper's founding, the Daily Express despatched his great-grandson Charlie Jacoby to retrace his footsteps.[14]

Labrador

Hesketh-Prichard first visited Atlantic Canada in August 1903, travelling up the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland, and donating the heads of stags he had shot to the Newfoundland Exhibition then in London. He returned in October 1904, this time with his mother, and the cricketer Teddy Wynyard.[15] His most ambitious trip to the region was however in July 1910, when he undertook to explore the interior of Labrador, saying "it seemed to us a pity that such a terra incognita should continue to exist under the British flag".[16] This same territory had claimed the life of writer Leonidas Hubbard a few years earlier. He described his journey up the Fraser River to access Indian House Lake on George River in the popular Through Trackless Labrador in 1911.[16] His reputation was such that former President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt, a fellow writer, explorer and hunter, wrote to him, commending him on his latest book, which he described as the best that season, and asking to meet him.[17]

Further writing

In 1904, the mother-and-son writing team produced The Chronicles of Don Q., a collection of short stories featuring the fictional rogue Don Quebranta Huesos, a Spanish Robin Hood-like figure who was fierce to the evil rich but kind-hearted to the virtuous poor. A second collection, The New Chronicles of Don Q. followed in 1906. The pair produced a full-length novel, Don Q.'s Love Story, in 1909. Don Q. was brought to the stage in 1921 when it was performed at the Apollo Theatre, London.[18] In 1925, the book was reworked as a Zorro vehicle by screenwriters Jack Cunningham and Lotta Woods; the United Artists silent film Don Q, Son of Zorro was produced by Douglas Fairbanks, who also starred as its lead character.[19] The New York Times rated the film one of its top ten movies of the year.[20]

In 1913, writing on his own, Hesketh-Prichard created the crime-fighting figure November Joe, a hunter and backwoodsman from the Canadian wilderness.

radio play by the BBC on 23 September 1970.[22] In 1921, he wrote Sport in Wildest Britain, in which he shared his experiences of bird shooting, particularly in the Outer Hebrides.[18]

Despite his reputation as a hunter, he campaigned to end the clubbing of

Charles Lyell MP, he was successful in seeing the Grey Seals (Protection) Act passed unopposed in 1914,[23] Britain's first legal protection for non-game mammals.[24] His article "Slaughtered for Fashion" in the March 1914 Pearson's Magazine argued to protect birds from plume hunting, their large-scale slaughter for hat feathers.[25]

Cricket

Hesketh-Prichard sits in an official cricket photograph surrounded by his team-mates
Hesketh-Prichard (front row, 2nd right) with London County, 1903. W.G. Grace is centre-rear.

Hesketh-Prichard was a talented cricketer, who played for a number of major teams.

Gentlemen of England, and for the South against the touring South Africans.[28]

In the winter which followed the 1904 season, he

toured the West Indies with Lord Brackley's XI's, making five first-class appearances during the tour. He featured for Hampshire with less regularity between 1905 and 1907, but continued to feature for the MCC, Gentlemen, and the Gentlemen of England.[28] It was during the 1905 season that he would take his career best figures of 8 for 32 against Derbyshire, with overall match figures of 13 for 78.[27] Having featured just once for Hampshire in 1907 against Middlesex, Hesketh-Prichard toured North America with the MCC late in the 1907 season, making two first-class appearances on the tour against the Gentlemen of Philadelphia, before making a single first-class appearance for the MCC against the Gentlemen of Philadelphia at Lord's in 1908.[28] A four-year gap would follow before he next appeared in first-class cricket, when he made five appearances for Hampshire in the County Championship and two for the MCC, taking 28 wickets during that season.[29] The following season, he concluded his first-class career with six appearances for Hampshire and one for the MCC against Oxford University, taking 23 wickets.[28]

A tall man, he was able to use his height and reach to his advantage when bowling his right-arm fast deliveries, particularly in relation to his ability to exact quick bounce off the pitch.[27] In sixty first-class matches for Hampshire, he took 233 wickets at an average of 23.45, taking fifteen five wicket hauls and ten wickets in a match on four occasions.[30] His overall first-class career saw him play 86 matches, taking 339 wickets at an average of 22.37, with 25 five wicket hauls.[31] He was not however a strong batsman and would typically play in the tail of the batting order, scoring 724 runs across his first-class career at a batting average of 7.46.[31]

Military service

Hesketh-Prichard, now sporting a moustache, is dressed in the uniform of an army officer. His expression appears serious as he looks into the distance.
Hesketh-Prichard in World War I uniform

At the outbreak of the

First World War, Hesketh-Prichard tried for a commission in the Black Watch and Guards, but both turned him down because of his age, then 37.[32] He was eventually successful obtaining a post as Assistant Press Officer at the War Office, and first sent to the front lines in France in February 1915 as an "eyewitness officer" in charge of war correspondents.[32] By this time, open warfare on the front had ceased, and had stagnated into the trench warfare that characterised much of the conflict. He witnessed there the victims of gas attack.[32]

Hesketh-Prichard was dismayed by the poor quality of

marksmanship amongst the British troops and shocked to learn of the high attrition rate due to well-trained German snipers. It was common for British regiments to lose five men a day to snipers;[33] he learned that one battalion lost eighteen in a single day.[34] The German snipers could not be located, leaving them free to continue shooting from their place of concealment. He thus set about improving the quality of marksmanship, calibrating and correcting the few telescopic sights that the army already possessed.[26] He borrowed more sights and hunting rifles from friends and famous hunters back home, funded the acquisition of others from his own pocket, or donations he solicited. To investigate the quality of German armour plate, he retrieved a sample from a German trench. He discovered that their armour could only be penetrated by a heavy cartridge such as Jeffery 333, while British plate could be easily defeated by a much smaller gun such as a Mauser.[35]

Innovations

He recognised German skill in constructing trench parapets: by making use of an irregular top and face to the parapet, and constructing it from material of varying composition, the presence of a sniper or an observer poking his head up became much less conspicuous. In contrast, British trench practice had been to give a military-straight neat edge to the parapet top, making any movement or protrusion immediately obvious.[36] An observer was vulnerable to an enemy sniper firing a bullet through his loophole, but Hesketh-Prichard devised a metal-armoured double loophole that would protect him. The front loophole was fixed, but the rear was housed in a metal shutter sliding in grooves. Only when the two loopholes were lined up—a one-to-twenty chance—could an enemy shoot between them.[37]

A drawing shows three soldiers raising a dummy head on a stick above a trench parapet. A cigarette hangs from the dummy's mouth. One man holds a periscope at the ready
A paper mache decoy head, used to reveal the position of enemy snipers
Soldiers raise a dummy head to locate an enemy sniper (top). A rare example of a sniper's dummy head that survived the conflict (bottom).

Another innovation was the use of a dummy head to find the location of an enemy sniper.[38] Initially, realistic papier-mâché heads were supplied to Hesketh-Prichard by the famous London theatrical wig and costume maker, Willy Clarkson.[39] These false heads were raised above the parapet on a stick running in a groove on a fixed board. To increase the realism, a lit cigarette could be inserted into the dummy's mouth and be smoked by a soldier via a rubber tube.[38] If the head was shot, it was dropped rapidly, simulating a casualty. The sniper's bullet would have made a hole in the front and back of the dummy's head. The head was then raised in the groove again, but lower than before by the vertical distance between the glasses of a trench periscope. If the lower glass of a periscope was placed before the front bullet hole, its upper glass would be at exactly the same height as the bullet had been. By looking through the rear hole in the head, through the front hole and up through the periscope, the soldier would be looking exactly along the line the bullet had taken, and so would be looking directly at the sniper, revealing his position.[38]

Training snipers

Hesketh-Prichard was eventually successful in gaining official support for his campaign, and in August 1915 was given permission to proceed with formalised sniper training.[40] By November of that year, his reputation was such that he was in high demand from many units. In December, he was ordered on General Allenby's request to the Third Army School of Instruction and was made a general staff officer with the rank of captain.[41] He was mentioned in dispatches on 1 January 1916.[42] In August 1916, he founded the First Army School of Sniping in the village of Linghem, Pas-de-Calais.[43] Starting with a first class of only six, in time he was able to lecture to large numbers of soldiers from different Allied nations, proudly proclaiming in a letter that his school was turning out snipers at three times the rate of any such other school in the world.[43] In October of that year he was awarded the Military Cross, the citation of which read:

"For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He has instructed snipers in the trenches on many occasions, and in most dangerous circumstances, with great skill and determination. He has, directly and indirectly, inflicted enormous casualties on the enemy."[44]

His friend George Gray, himself a champion shooter, told him that he had reduced sniping casualties from five a week per battalion to forty-four in three months in sixty battalions; by his reckoning, this meant that Hesketh-Prichard had saved over 3,500 lives.[33] He was promoted to major in November 1916.[45] By this time in the war, his contributions to sniping had been such that the former German superiority in the practice had now been reversed.[26]

Later war years

Hesketh-Prichard was taken ill with an undetermined infection in late 1917 and was granted leave. His health remained poor for the rest of his life, and he spent much of it convalescing. It was during this period of leave that he learned that he had been awarded the Distinguished Service Order,[46] for his work with the First Army School of Sniping, Observation, and Scouting.[26] For his wartime work with the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps, he was appointed a Commander of the Military Order of Avis.[26][47] In 1920, he wrote his account of his wartime activities: the critically acclaimed Sniping in France, which is still referred to by modern authors on the subject.[48][49][50]

Later years

In July 1919, Hesketh-Prichard was elected Chairman of the Society of Authors, of which he had been a member for many years.[51] Poor health forced him to resign the following January.[52] Following his war service, he continued to write and hunt when his health permitted him.

Hesketh-Prichard died from

St Michael's Church, St Albans.[54]

His mother survived him, dying in 1935.[26] His wife, who later became Woman of the Bedchamber to Queen Mary, lived until 1975.[55][56] Hesketh-Prichard's biography was written two years after his death by his friend Eric Parker, who encapsulated his many accomplishments within its title: Hesketh Prichard D.S.O., M.C.: Explorer, Naturalist, Cricketer, Author, Soldier.[3]

Family life

In 1908, Hesketh Hesketh-Prichard married Lady Elizabeth Grimston, the daughter of

Second World War, became the first head of its Czech Section, training agents to conduct the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich.[57] Alfgar Hesketh-Prichard was killed by Yugoslav Partisans in Austria on 3 December 1944[58] and was posthumously awarded the Military Cross.[59][60]

References

  1. ^
    JSTOR 1781332
    .
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8047-1842-4
    .
  3. ^ a b Parker, Eric (1924). Hesketh Prichard. London: T. Fisher Unwin. pp. 12–13.
  4. ^ Parker, Eric. Hesketh Prichard. pp. 18–19.
  5. ^ a b Parker, Eric. Hesketh Prichard. pp. 22–23.
  6. ^ a b Parker, Eric. Hesketh Prichard. pp. 27–28.
  7. ^ a b c d e Parker, Eric. Hesketh Prichard. pp. 36–42.
  8. ^ Parker, Eric. Hesketh Prichard. pp. 45–50.
  9. ^ a b c d "PATAGONIA; Hesketh-Prichard's Stirring Tale of Exploration in the Far South". The New York Times. 20 December 1902. Retrieved 22 November 2008.
  10. ^ Parker, Eric. Hesketh Prichard. pp. 61–64.
  11. ^ Pascual, M; et al. "Presencia de salmón chinook (Oncorhynchus Tshawytscha) en el Río Caterina, Estancia Cristina, Parque Nacional los Glaciares" (PDF) (in Spanish). Centro Nacional Patagónico. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 May 2011. Retrieved 30 November 2008.
  12. ^ "Los Glaciares National Park". UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  13. ^ "Poa prichardii". Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden. Retrieved 22 November 2008.
  14. ^ Jacoby, Charlie (8 February 2001). "Giant Sloth". Daily Express. London. Archived from the original on 7 January 2009. Retrieved 22 November 2008.
  15. ^ Parker, Eric. Hesketh Prichard. pp. 71–75.
  16. ^ a b Parker, Eric. Hesketh Prichard. pp. 97–98.
  17. ^ Parker, Eric. Hesketh Prichard. p. 108.
  18. ^ a b Parker, Eric. Hesketh Prichard. p. 243.
  19. IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
    . Accessed on 25 November 2008.
  20. ^ Hall, Mordaunt (10 January 1926). "Ten Best Films of 1925 Helped by Late Influx". The New York Times.
  21. ISBN 9781842432488. Archived from the original
    on 19 December 2007.
  22. ^ "TV and Radio". The Times. London. 23 September 1970.
  23. ^ Parker, Eric. Hesketh Prichard. pp. 114–115.
  24. ISBN 9780203440032
    .
  25. ^ Parker, Eric. Hesketh Prichard. pp. 125–126.
  26. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/98115. Retrieved 28 November 2008. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  27. ^ a b c d "Obituaries in 1922". Wisden 1923. Retrieved 23 November 2008.
  28. ^ a b c d e f g h "First-Class Matches played by Hesketh Hesketh-Prichard". CricketArchive. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  29. ^ a b c d "First-Class Bowling in Each Season by Hesketh Hesketh-Prichard". CricketArchive. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  30. ^ "First-Class Bowling For Each Team by Hesketh Hesketh-Prichard". CricketArchive. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  31. ^ a b "Player profile: Hesketh Hesketh-Prichard". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  32. ^ a b c Parker, Eric. Hesketh Prichard. pp. 157–162.
  33. ^ a b Parker, Eric. Hesketh Prichard. pp. 251–254.
  34. ISBN 0850524261
    .
  35. ^ Parker, Eric. Hesketh Prichard. p. 164.
  36. ^ Parker, Eric. Hesketh Prichard. p. 171.
  37. ISBN 0-85052-426-1
    .
  38. ^
    ISBN 0850524261
    .
  39. ISBN 9780199756711
    .
  40. ^ Parker, Eric. Hesketh Prichard. p. 174.
  41. ^ Parker, Eric. Hesketh Prichard. pp. 196–198.
  42. ^ "No. 29422". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 1915. pp. 1–5.
  43. ^ a b Parker, Eric. Hesketh Prichard. p. 212.
  44. ^ "No. 29824". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 November 1916. p. 11055.
  45. ^ "No. 29934". The London Gazette (Supplement). 6 February 1917. p. 1364.
  46. ^ "No. 30563". The London Gazette (Supplement). 8 March 1918. p. 2973.
  47. ^ "No. 31514". The London Gazette (Supplement). 19 August 1919. pp. 10613–10614.
  48. ^ Sniping in France by Major H. Hesketh-Prichard (1920)
  49. ISBN 9780312957667
    .
  50. ISBN 9780312362904
    .
  51. ^ "Authors' Society Dinner". The Times. 22 July 1919.
  52. ^ "Society of Authors". The Times. 27 January 1920.
  53. ISBN 9781551096582
    .
  54. ^ "Funerals: Major H.V. Hesketh-Prichard". The Times. London. 19 June 1922.
  55. ^ "Appointments to the Queen's Household". The Times. London. 31 December 1924.
  56. ^ "Lady Elizabeth Hesketh-Prichard". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 23 November 2008.
  57. ISBN 978-1-86064-779-6
    .
  58. ^ Linasi, Marjan (2004). "Še o zavezniških misijah ali kako in zakaj je moral umreti britanski major Cahusac". Zgodovinski časopis. 57 (1–2): 99–116. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  59. ISBN 978-0-7100-0573-1
    .
  60. ^ "A Wartime Mystery". Queens' College Record. 1998. Archived from the original on 17 December 2007. Retrieved 23 November 2008.

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