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Another QSA from the 2020 Auction

Single – QSA one bar CC: (340 Q.M. Sjt. P.D. Hunter. Frontier M. R.) Good Very Fine
Obverse edge bruise at 6 o’clock.

Quarter-Master Sergeant Percy Dugmore Hunter was killed on 4 March 1901 at Labuschagne's Nek, 11 km North West of the town of Dordrecht, when a British force commanded by Brigadier-General Brabant attacked a Commando of Boers, over 1000 strong. The battle lasted the whole day with the Boers, who were outnumbered, retiring that night.

Percy was just 24 years and 5 months and is buried in the Dordrecht cemetery.

Percy was born in Queenstown on 17 October 1875. He was the fourth and second youngest son of the Wesleyan Minister and Missionary William Hunter (born 11 September 1837 in St Helens in Lancashire, England) and his wife Louisa Maria Barnes (born 7 September 1836 in Grahamstown, Cape Colony). His father was a local preacher at Birkenhead and offered himself for the Ministry in 1860. He was posted to South Africa and spent 20 years as a missionary in the Eastern Cape. He married Louisa on 31 January 1866 and their marriage produced 4/5 sons and 1/2 daughters. He was a gifted linguist and teacher and wrote hymns and text books in Xhosa. He was a member of the Board for the Revision of the Xhosa Bible and revised the Rev. W.J. Davis’s Xhosa Dictionary. In 1878 he developed a “throat affection” and was given a year’s leave to recuperate in England. He finally returned to England in 1880 for health reasons. He retired in 1899 and died at Sevenoaks in 1905.

According to the English Census of 1881 Percy was living with his family in Croydon in Surrey. Besides his parents the family included George Henry his eldest brother, Emma Louisa, Charles Frederick and Herbert Edward.

Percy received his school education at Kingswood School in Bath, England from 1886 to June 1892 when he completed his matric. He then went on to teach for a couple of years at the Woodhouse Grove School in Leeds. He returned to South Africa becoming the second assistant teacher to be appointed to the Kingswood College Staff in Grahamstown, South Africa, in 1895. He took part in concerts and musical events held on founders Day. Today rugby football is played with a passion at Kingswood School. The game of rugby was first introduced to the school by Percy when he arrived in 1895. He was a keen player and played himself for the local Albany rugby team and due to the small number of boys at the school even played for the school team on several important occasions. Such was his influence on the introduction and acceptance of the game of rugby football that the fine centenary history book on the school published in 1994 includes full details of his thoughts on the game. This book includes a special biographical writeup about him and it is worth including it in this writeup. He also served as a Lieutenant and 2nd in command of the Kingswood Cadet Corps. The other Officers were notably the Head Master, Ernest Gerald Gane, and the Headmasters brother, P.C. Gane, later to become Justice Percival Carleton Gane, who was a year older than Percy and had been at school with him back in England.

Percy resigned his teaching post at Kingswood College and joined the Indwe Coal Company being appointed as the Issuer of Stores at the Indwe Coal Company He served as Quarter Master Sergeant for the section of the Frontier Mounted Rifles based at Indwe before the onset of hostilities. His brother George Henry Hunter was appointed as the Executor of his Estate.

The reports by General Forestier Walker showed that in October 1899 the Frontier Mounted Rifles had a strength of 229 men who were stationed at Barkly East, Cathcart, Molteno, and Indwe. When General Gatacre arrived, they gave him great assistance, their local knowledge being invaluable. For some months their work was much akin to that of the Cape Mounted Rifles, the Kaffrarian Rifles, and Brabant's Horse. In several of the actions in the Dordrecht district the Frontier Mounted Rifles took a prominent share, and always did well.

It was here at Labuschagne's Nek, 11 km NW of the town of Dordrecht Quarter-Master Sgt Percy Dugmore Hunter was killed on 4 March 1901. A British force commanded by Brigadier-General Brabant attacked a Commando of Boers, over 1,000 strong. The battle lasted the whole day with the Boers, who were outnumbered, retiring that night. On Saturday 3 March 1900 Brig General Brabant attacked Commandant Daniel Wilhelmus Schoeman and his force of some 400 Cape Rebels who were holding Labuschagne’s Nek (north of Dordrecht). The British and Colonial troops (some 1800 men with 8 field-guns and some Maxims) lodged two flank attacks and the right wing under Major C Maxwell managed to capture the key position of Bakenkop. Brabant’s main attack succeeded the next day (4 March) when some 1200 Colonial troops dislodged the defenders and took Labuschagne’s Nek. Commandant Frans van Aardt’s attempt to recapture Bakenkop with 80 volunteers failed because Maxwell had succeeded in dragging two field-guns to the summit the previous night. On Monday 5 March 1900 the British occupation of Labuschagne’s Nek was consolidated when the Colonial Division forced Commandant J F de Wet and his Barkly East Rebels to abandon Pappasnek outside Dordrecht. The battle lasted the whole day with the Boers, who were outnumbered, retiring that night.

Percy D. Hunter

Percy Dugmore Hunter was on the Kingswood staff from 1894 to 1898. His father, the Rev William Hunter, made his mark in South Africa as a missionary in Tembuland. Percy was at school in Bath and before coming to Grahamstown was a master for some time at Woodhouse Grove (1817), the first of several Methodist schools to be founded in the north of England. He was the second assistant-teacher to be appointed to Kingswood College, where his “kindness and good nature endeared him to all”.

The well known publication celebrating the centenary of Kingswood College has much to say about Percy noting that “He will always be remembered as the founder of the rugby tradition at Kingswood, where soccer was played before his arrival. His philosophy of rugby is worth quoting in full and has come to be the code around which the game has always been played. Kingswood is noted for its open and attractive running rugby.”

Hunter declared: “the success of a football team, though to a large extent dependent upon the weight of its members, is not entirely so, and many a heavy team has been beaten by a lighter one through failing to pay attention to one or two important points. Of these we might mention – first, implicit trust in and obedience to the captain; second, regular and persistent training and practice; third, hard backing up and absolute unselfishness on the field.

The necessity of the first is obvious and hardly needs any comment. We are told that “If a house is divided against itself it cannot stand”’ and certainly the same is true of a football team. Choose for your Captain the best man to be had, and having chosen him stick to him through thick and thin, and not only to him but to each other. Play wherever you are put as though your very life depended upon it: if possible, always attack. As regards the second point, it would be advisable to have at least three hard games every week, and a good run with fast short passing every morning.

“On the field look upon yourself as part of a machine, and remember that in a football team, as in a machine, success is impossible unless every part is working smoothly, quietly, and iin harmony with the others. Play with your heads as well as your legs and hands; do nothing rashly; keep your tongues quiet, and listen for your Captain’s orders by so doing you will at least save a good deal of wind; keep your eyes open, and pass before you are collared; punt into touch freely, and always follow up your kick. Forwards, try to form in before your opponents … get your heads low, and break up quickly as soon as the ball is out; mark your man carefully, and always collar by the legs; study and carry out the rules, and never dispute the referee’s decision; and above all never forget that you are …. A gentleman.”

All who knew Hunter were grieved to hear of his death, characteristically in action at Labuschagne’s Nek near Dordrecht, on 4 March 1899 (sic) in the Anglo-Boer War.

RobM

Dordrecht Cemetery

Hi Rob,

Another interesting read, and shows that there is plenty of additional information to be discovered on the men behind the medals, even from an illustrious collection as the one referred to.