Percy Frederick Hunt
Captain Percy Frederic Hunt | |
---|---|
Born | 28 May 1873 Pau, France |
Died | 6 August 1901 (aged 28) Duiwelskloof, Northern Transvaal, South African Republic |
Years of service | 1893–1901 |
Rank | Captain |
Unit | Bushveldt Carbineers |
Captain Percy Frederic Hunt (28 May 1873 – 6 August 1901) was French-born,
Early life
Hunt was born on 28 May 1873 in
According to South African historian Arthur Davey, "During the
Friendship with Harry Morant
Hunt and Morant are likely to have met in Pretoria sometime between July–November 1900, just after Morant's service in the South Australian Mounted Rifles had been completed. They developed a friendship over time, and eventually Hunt invited Morant to join the recently formed, Bushveldt Carbineers in April 1901.
Death
Prelude
At the end of July 1901, the garrison at Fort Edward received a visit from the Reverend Fritz Reuter of the
After Rev. Reuter's intelligence had been confirmed by a Native runner, Captain Hunt also learned that Sergeant Cecil's patrol had been ambushed near the Medingen Mission Station. In response, the captain departed Fort Edward on 2 August 1901 with the intention of ambushing the Viljoen Commando. In addition to service personnel of the Bushveldt Carbineers, the patrol included Tony Schiel, a defector from the Zoutpansberg Commando and Intelligence Scout for Captain Alfred Taylor.[4]
It was to be Schiel's task to command between 300 and 400 irregulars drawn from the local Lobedu people. According to South African historian Charles Leach, Captain Hunt had received "warnings and expressions of caution" regarding "the wisdom of attacking an enemy position at night" without normal reconnaissance of the place. Deciding to proceed anyway, Captain Hunt led "his patrol into a situation that would echo through the next 100 years."[5]
Ambush
According to the diary of BVC Trooper J.S. Silke, Rev. Reuter warned Captain Hunt against attacking. The Viljoen farmhouse, he explained, was built on a rocky hillside and "was unassailable". Furthermore, the nearby Botha farmhouse contained more than 40 armed men who could easily cut off the Bushveldt Carbineers' line of retreat. Despite the missionary's warnings and the fact that it was a bright moonlit night, Captain Hunt chose to attack anyway.[6]
After planning a two-pronged attack, Captain Hunt ordered Trooper Silke to wait for a signal shot and rush the farmhouse from behind with 50 Lobedu warriors. Then, Captain Hunt approached the farmhouse via the concrete steps terraced into the hillside.
According to the memoirs of Hendrik Adriaan Jacobs, the Viljoen Commando knew that an attack was coming. The Commando's members, however, were "feverish" from the effects of
Aftermath
When the surviving members of the patrol returned to Medingen Mission Station, Rev. Reuter asked them about their officers and "was told a confusing and contradictory story of what had happened". Decades later, Rev. Reuter's daughter recalled in a televised interview, "My father roused on them, asking how they could leave their Captain like that."[8]
The body of Captain Hunt was later found stripped, with his neck broken, his face stomped on with a hobnailed boot, and with his legs slashed with a knife.[9]
According to South African historian Charles Leach, however, Captain Hunt's broken neck would be consistent with a fall down the concrete steps after being shot in the chest. The mutilations found on his body were also found on the bodies of the three dead Boers. Both sides blamed the other for the disfigurement of the dead. Viljoen Commando member Hendrik Jacobs, however, believed that Lobedu witch-doctors were to blame. According to historian Charles Leach, accounts by French anthropologist Henri Junod reveal that the traditional practice of the Lobedu people was to disembowel dead and dying warriors on the battlefield in order to set their spirits free.[10]
The body of Captain Percy Hunt was buried at the Medingen Mission Station, after a burial service was read over his body by Rev. Fritz Reuter. A cross was later installed at the Captain's grave by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Sergeant Eland was buried at his family's nearby homestead, the Ravenshill Farm, after a burial service that was also read by Rev. Reuter.
Captain Hunt's death was reported in the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser on 19 August 1901.[11]
Legacy
Hunt was allegedly engaged to a woman whose sister was engaged to Morant. Hunt's death at the hands of the Viljoen Commando inspired a series of
According to South African historian Arthur Davey, "...Hunt was only 28 when he was killed and therefore younger than his subordinates, Morant and Handcock, and only a year older than the hapless Witton. His tenure as a
In popular culture
In the award-winning 1980 film
References
- Van Riebeeck Society, Cape Town. Page xlii.
- Van Riebeeck Society, Cape Town. Page xlii.
- ^ Charles Leach (2012), The Legend of Breaker Morant is Dead and Buried, Louis Trichardt. Pages 37-38.
- ^ Leach (2012), pages 38-39.
- ^ Leach (2012), pages 39-40.
- ^ Leach (2012), pages 40-43.
- ^ Leach (2012), pages 40-45.
- ^ Leach (2012), page 43.
- ^ Davey (1987), page xliii.
- ^ Leach (2012), pages 44-51.
- ^ "The Casualty List". Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser. 19 August 1901. p. 5.
- ^ R. K. Todd, 'Morant, Harry Harbord (Breaker) (1864–1902)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/morant-harry-harbord-breaker-7649/text13377, published first in hardcopy 1986, accessed online 1 December 2016.
- ^ "THE SHOOTING OF AUSTRALIAN SOLDIERS". Evening News. No. 10, 858. New South Wales, Australia. 31 March 1902. p. 4. Retrieved 1 December 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
- Evening Journal (Adelaide). Vol. XXXIV, no. 9749. South Australia. 4 April 1902. p. 3. Retrieved 1 December 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "The Witton Case". The Daily News. Vol. XXIII, no. 9071. Western Australia. 8 June 1904. p. 2. Retrieved 1 December 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ Davey (1987), pages xlii-xliii.