The Passing of the Famous Hunter F.C. Selous

By Jacqueline Marsh

Jacqueline Marsh is the daughter of Brian Marsh, author of ‘A Pioneering Hunter,’ published by Safari Press.

My dad, Brian Marsh, a gun-nut from the day he was old enough to hold a rifle, was always interested in Frederick Courteney Selous.  He bought all his books and sought further information at the Salisbury (now Harare) Archives, where all Selous’s letters to his mother are kept since she kindly sent them there after her son’s death.

Dad unearthed a lot about Selous’s life which is not generally known. His research at the Archives also allowed him to discover an error about one of Selous’s rifles, incorrectly labelled in its display cabinet. It was one of the 4-bore muzzle-loading elephant guns that Selous owned, which lead to a humorous exchange between him and the archives’ curator.

The gun in question was described as being one of a pair of Selous’s 4-bore Hollis that he’d taken back to England, which was also sent to the Archives by his mother.  But Dad knew better. Selous had parted with the Hollis pair after acquiring his third 4-bore, which he’d bought from the famed Dutch elephant hunter Jan Viljoen, whom he met and became friendly with in Matabeleland. Selous described this gun “as the best he had ever owned”; this was the gun he’d taken back with him to England after the Matabele rebellion, which his mother subsequently sent to Salisbury.

Selous tells that what he didn’t like about his original pair of Hollis was that they only weighed 12 pounds apiece, which resulted in a horrendous recoil.  The newly acquired gun weighed 16 pounds, which resulted in a much more moderate recoil.

The gun in the Archives had no name on it. But Dad brought his copy of Selous’s words to show the curator.  When asked to prove his theory, Dad said, “That’s easy.  Have you got a scale?” This was brought – the gun weighed in at 16 pounds.  The text identifying the gun in the cabinet was immediately changed.
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Selous married Gladys Maddy in 1894; they had two sons, Fred Jr. and Harold.  Fred Jr. was a Captain in the Royal Flying Corp (R.F.C.) during the First World War, but died on 4 January 1916 when the wings fell off his plane. Lieutenant Edward Thornton was flying close to Fred Jr. when it happened and wrote: “I was up at 15,000 feet over the German lines when I saw Captain Selous take a dive at a German machine some 2,000 feet below. What actually happened I do not know, but all at once I saw both wings of his plane collapse and he fell to the earth like a stone.”

Fred Jr.’s life could have been saved if he’d been allowed to wear a parachute; but these were a banned item for R.F.C. pilots during the war. The reason? The R.F.C.’s top brass, who made the rule, were of the opinion that if a pilot spotted an enemy aircraft approaching, he would bail out rather than fight!

Harold served in the Officers’ Cadet Battalion and after the war went to Nyasaland where he worked in the local administration.

Selous was over 60 years old when the First World War broke out.  Nevertheless, he applied and was accepted into the 25th RNF as Scout and given the rank of captain. His regiment was sent to East Africa to assist in chasing down the legendary Col. von Lettow-Vorbeck, and was attached to the 1st East African Brigade. They penetrated deep into German East Africa, but the rains of December 1916 pinned them down at Dakawa, some 40 km north of the Rufiji River, and they were unable to move again until the beginning of January.

When they did move, beginning with a night march, they took the German unit keeping them under observation completely by surprise, actually capturing an officer who was still in bed asleep. Their destination was Beho-Beho, some 20 km north of the Rufiji, where von Lettow was entrenched on the escarpment overlooking Lake Tchogawali after being chased out of Kissaki by General Smuts’s British East Africa Expeditionary Force.

On the night of 3 January 1917, the 1st and the 25th undertook a night march in order to engage the enemy at first light. On the plain below the Beho-Beho escarpment were two small hogsback kopjes of strategic importance, and the 25th was ordered to take them. The kopjes were undefended, but the Germans had their range; the 25th only succeeded in occupying them after being quite badly shot up. It was on these kopjes, however, that F.C. Selous was killed the following day.

General Smuts gave the following account:
“Our force moved out from Kissaki early on the morning of January 4th 1917, exactly one year after Fred Jr. was killed, with the object of attacking and surrounding a considerable number of German troops which were encamped along the low hills east of Beho-behom north-east of the road that led from Kissaki south-east to the Rufiji river, some 13 miles distant from the enemy position. The low hills occupied by the Germans were densely covered with thorn-bush and the visibility to the west was not good. Nevertheless, they soon realised the danger of their position when they detected a circling movement on the part of the 25th Royal Fusiliers, which had been detailed to stop them on the road leading south-east, the only road, in fact, by which they could retreat. They must have retired early, for their forces came to this point at the exact moment when the leading company of the Fusiliers, under Captain Selous, reached the same point. Heavy firing on both sides then commenced, and Selous at once deployed his company, attacking the Germans, which greatly outnumbered him, and drove them back into the bush. It was at this time that Selous was struck dead by a shot in the head.”

Captain Selous was buried that same afternoon with six of his comrades who also fell during the engagement. He had just turned 65. One of the fallen was Lieutenant Dutch, who had taken over Selous’s command, only to be shot down himself immediately afterwards. The geographical co-ordinates of the seven graves are approximately latitude 7 degrees south and longitude 38 degrees east. They lay in what was then a wild and untamed part of Africa, overlooking the tranquil waters of Lake Tchogawali, and marked only by simple wooden crosses.

Colonel Driscoll, Selous’s commanding officer, said of him:
“He came to see me in Manchester when I was recruiting for men for the 25th. He offered his services and I told him he was too old, but he said I must take him; he had played a great part in the opening up of Darkest Africa; he belonged to Africa and, to a certain extent, Africa belonged to him. He could not bear the thought of dying within four walls in England when Africa, with wide-open arms, was waiting to welcome him back. That was where he wanted to die and be buried. So you see, his cherished wish had come true.”