Frederick Russell Burnham,
DSOThe Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
(May 11, 1861 – September 1, 1947) was an American
scoutReconnaissance is the military term for exploring beyond the area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about enemy forces or features of the environment....
and world traveling adventurer known for his service to the
British ArmyThe British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
in colonial Africa and for teaching
woodcraftScoutcraft is a term used to cover a variety of woodcraft knowledge and skills required by people seeking to venture into wild country and sustain themselves independently. The term has been adopted by Scouting organizations to reflect skills and knowledge which are felt to be a core part of the...
to
Robert Baden-PowellRobert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, Bt, OM, GCMG, GCVO, KCB , also known as B-P or Lord Baden-Powell, was a lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, and founder of the Scout Movement....
, thus becoming one of the inspirations for the founding of the international
Scouting MovementScouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement with the stated aim of supporting young people in their physical, mental and spiritual development, that they may play constructive roles in society....
.
Burnham had little formal education, attending high school but never graduating. He began his career at 14 in the American Southwest as a scout and tracker for the U.S. Army in the
Apache WarsThe Apache Wars were a series of armed conflicts between the United States and Apaches fought in the Southwest from 1849 to 1886, though other minor hostilities continued until as late as 1924. The Confederate Army participated in the wars during the early 1860s, for instance in Texas, before being...
and Cheyenne Wars. Sensing the Old West was getting too tame, as an adult Burnham went to Africa where this background proved useful. He soon became an officer in the British Army, serving in several battles there. During this time, Burnham became friends with Baden-Powell, and passed on to him both his outdoor skills and his spirit for what would later become known as Scouting.
Burnham eventually moved on to become involved in
espionageEspionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
, oil, conservation, writing and business. His descendants are still active in Scouting.
Early life
Burnham was born to a
missionaryA missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
family on an Indian Reservation in Tivoli,
MinnesotaMinnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
. As a toddler, he witnessed the burning of
New Ulm, MinnesotaNew Ulm is a city in Brown County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 13,522 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Brown County....
, by
TaoyatedutaLittle Crow was a chief of the Mdewakanton Dakota Sioux. His given name translates as "His Red Nation," but he was known as Little Crow because of his father's name, Čhetáŋ Wakhúwa Máni, which was mistranslated.Little Crow is notable in for his role in the...
(Little Crow) and his
SiouxThe Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
warriors in the
Dakota War of 1862The Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising, was an armed conflict between the United States and several bands of the eastern Sioux. It began on August 17, 1862, along the Minnesota River in southwest Minnesota...
. During the uprising, his mother, Rebecca (Elizabeth) Russell Burnham, hid the not-quite-two-year-old boy in a basket of green corn husks and fled for her life. Once the Sioux had been driven away the mother returned to find the house burned down. Her young son was safe, fast asleep in the basket and protected only by the corn husks.
The young Burnham attended schools in Iowa and there he met Blanche Blick, who would later become his wife. His family moved to
Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, in 1870. Two years later his father, the Rev.
Edwin Otway BurnhamRev Edwin Otway Burnham was a Congregational minister.He was born in Ghent, Kentucky, his father died when he was 5 and his mother died the following year. He and his younger sister, Caroline, moved to Madison, New York to live with their grandfather Abner Burnham, a soldier of the Revolutionary...
of Kentucky, himself a long time pioneer and missionary along the border of the Ho Chunk (Winnebago) Indian reservation in Minnesota, died when Burnham was only 12. While his mother and his then 3 year old baby brother
Howard BurnhamMather Howard Burnham , went by the name of Howard and his brother was the celebrated scout Frederick Russell Burnham. He traveled the world, frequently worked as a mining engineer and, during World War I, he became an intelligence officer and spy for the government of France...
returned to Iowa, the young Burnham stayed in California to make his own way.
For the next three years, Burnham worked as a mounted messenger for the Western Union Telegraph Company in California and
ArizonaArizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
. On one occasion his horse was stolen from him by
Tiburcio VasquezTiburcio Vásquez was a Californio bandit who was active in California from 1854 to 1874. The Vasquez Rocks, 40 miles north of Los Angeles, were one of his many hideouts and are named for him.-Early life:...
, a famous
CalifornioCalifornio is a term used to identify a Spanish-speaking Catholic people, regardless of race, born in California before 1848...
banditIn historical legal systems, an outlaw is declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, this takes the burden of active prosecution of a criminal from the authorities. Instead, the criminal is withdrawn all legal protection, so that anyone is legally empowered to persecute...
. At 14, he began his life as a scout and Indian tracker in the
Apache WarsThe Apache Wars were a series of armed conflicts between the United States and Apaches fought in the Southwest from 1849 to 1886, though other minor hostilities continued until as late as 1924. The Confederate Army participated in the wars during the early 1860s, for instance in Texas, before being...
. He traveled in northern Mexico and the American Southwest, including
TexasTexas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
and
OklahomaOklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
, earning a living as a buffalo hunter, cowboy, and prospector, and he continued working as a scout while tracking Indians in the
Cheyenne WarThe Cheyenne War, also known as the Cheyenne Campaign, normally refers to a conflict between the United States' armed forces and a small group of Cheyenne families, which took place between 1878–1879....
. The young Burnham eventually went on to attend high school in California but never graduated.
In 1882, Burnham returned to Arizona and was appointed Deputy Sheriff of Pinal County, but he soon went back to cattle and mining interests. He joined the losing side of the
Tonto Basin FeudThe Pleasant Valley War, sometimes called the Tonto Basin Feud, or Tonto Basin War, was commonly thought to be an Arizona range war between two feuding families, the cattle-herding Grahams and the sheep-herding Tewksburys...
before mass killing started, and only narrowly escaped death in Arizona. He returned to
Prescott, IowaPrescott is a city in Prescott Township, Adams County, Iowa, United States. The population was 266 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Prescott is located at ....
, to visit his childhood sweetheart, Blanche, and the two were married on February 6, 1884. That same year, he and Blanche settled down to tend to an orange grove in
Pasadena, CaliforniaPasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
, but within a year he was back prospecting and scouting.
In the 1880s the American press had been popularizing the notion that the West had been won and there was nothing left to conquer in the United States. This idea changed Burnham's life. Ever the soldier of fortune, he began to look elsewhere for the next undeveloped frontier. When he heard of the work of Cecil Rhodes and his pioneers in building the Cape to Cairo railway in Africa, Burnham sold what little he owned and, in 1893, set sail to Cape Town, South Africa, with his wife and young son. He soon joined the
British South Africa CompanyThe British South Africa Company was established by Cecil Rhodes through the amalgamation of the Central Search Association and the Exploring Company Ltd., receiving a royal charter in 1889...
as a scout and headed north. Burnham became well known in Africa for his ability to track, even at night, and the Africans dubbed him
He-who-sees-in-the-dark.
Burnham is the brother of
Mather Howard BurnhamMather Howard Burnham , went by the name of Howard and his brother was the celebrated scout Frederick Russell Burnham. He traveled the world, frequently worked as a mining engineer and, during World War I, he became an intelligence officer and spy for the government of France...
, a mining engineer and spy, and second cousin of Lt.
Howard Mather BurnhamLt. Howard Mather Burnham , is best known for having fought and died at the Battle of Chickamauga in Georgia, during the American Civil War.-Early life:...
, killed in the
American Civil WarThe American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
.
Military career
First Matabele War
Burnham’s first major test in Africa came in 1893 when the British South Africa Company went to war with the Matabele King
LobengulaLobengula Khumalo was the second and last king of the Ndebele people, usually pronounced Matabele in English. Both names, in the Sindebele language, mean "The men of the long shields", a reference to the Matabele warriors' use of the Zulu shield and spear.- Background :The Matabele were related to...
.
Leander Starr JamesonSir Leander Starr Jameson, 1st Baronet, KCMG, CB, , also known as "Doctor Jim", "The Doctor" or "Lanner", was a British colonial statesman who was best known for his involvement in the Jameson Raid....
had hoped to defeat the Matabele quickly by capturing Lobengula at his royal city of
BulawayoBulawayo is the second largest city in Zimbabwe after the capital Harare, with an estimated population in 2010 of 2,000,000. It is located in Matabeleland, 439 km southwest of Harare, and is now treated as a separate provincial area from Matabeleland...
. Burnham and a small group of scouts were sent ahead to report on the situation in Bulawayo. While on the outskirts of town they watched as the Matabele burned down and destroyed everything in sight. By the time the white troops had arrived in force, Lobengula and his warriors had fled and there was little left of old Bulawayo.
Shangani Patrol
After he found that Bulawayo had been abandoned, Jameson dispatched a column of soldiers to locate and capture Lobengula. The column, led by Maj.
Patrick ForbesPatrick William Forbes , was born in 1861 at Whitechurch, England. He was educated at Rugby, Warwickshire and commissioned to the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons. In 1880, he went to Cape Colony and in 1889 he was made second-in-command of the British South Africa Police...
, camped on the south bank of the Shangani River about 25 miles (40 km) north-east of the village of Lupane on the evening of December 3, 1893. The next day, late in the afternoon, a dozen men under the command of Maj. Allan Wilson were sent across the river to patrol the area. The Wilson Patrol came across a group of Matabele women and children who claimed to know Lobengula’s whereabouts. Burnham, who served as the lead scout of the Wilson patrol, sensed a trap and advised Wilson to withdraw, but Wilson ordered his patrol to advance.
Soon afterwards, the patrol found the king and Wilson sent a message back to the laager requesting reinforcements. Forbes, however, was unwilling to set off across the river in the dark, so he sent only 20 more men, under the command of Henry Borrow, to reinforce Wilson’s patrol. Forbes intended to send the main body of troops and artillery across the river the following morning; however, the main column was ambushed by Matabele warriors and delayed. Wilson’s patrol too came under attack, but the Shangani River had swollen and there was now no possibility of retreat. In desperation, Wilson sent Burnham and two other scouts, Pearl “Pete” Ingram (a
MontanaMontana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
cowboy) and George Gooding (an Australian), to cross the Shangani River, find Forbes, and bring reinforcements. In spite of a shower of bullets and spears, the three made it to Forbes, but the battle raging there was just as intense as the one they had left, and there was no hope of anyone reaching Wilson in time. As Burnham loaded his rifle to beat back the Matabele warriors, he quietly said to Forbes, "I think I may say that we are the sole survivors of that party." Wilson, Borrow, and their men were indeed surrounded by hundreds of Matabele warriors; escape was impossible, and all were killed.
Rhodesian colonial histories called this the
Shangani PatrolThe Shangani Patrol was a group of white Rhodesian pioneer police officers killed in battle on the Shangani River in Matabeleland in 1893. The incident achieved a lasting, prominent place in Rhodesian colonial history.-Setting and Battle:...
, and hailed Wilson and Borrow as national heroes. For his service in the war, Burnham was presented the
British South Africa Company MedalThe British South Africa Company Medal . In 1896, Queen Victoria sanctioned the issue by the British South Africa Company of a medal to troops who had been engaged in the First Matabele War. In 1897, the Queen sanctioned another medal for those engaged in the two campaigns of the Second Matabele...
, a gold watch, and a share of a 300 acre (120 ha) tract of land in
MatabelelandModern day Matabeleland is a region in Zimbabwe divided into three provinces: Matabeleland North, Bulawayo and Matabeleland South. These provinces are in the west and south-west of Zimbabwe, between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers. The region is named after its inhabitants, the Ndebele people...
. It was here that Burnham uncovered many artifacts in the huge granite ruins of the ancient civilization of
Great ZimbabweGreat Zimbabwe is a ruined city that was once the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe, which existed from 1100 to 1450 C.E. during the country’s Late Iron Age. The monument, which first began to be constructed in the 11th century and which continued to be built until the 14th century, spanned an...
.
Northern Rhodesia Exploration
In 1895, Burnham went on to oversee and lead the massive Northern Territories (BSA) Exploration Co. expedition which first established for the British South Africa Company that major copper deposits existed in
North-Eastern RhodesiaNorth-Eastern Rhodesia in south central Africa was formed by and administered by the British South Africa Company as the other half, with North-Western Rhodesia, of the huge territory lying mainly north of the Zambezi River into which it expanded its charter in 1891...
. Along the
Kafue RiverThe Kafue River sustains one of the world's great wildlife environments. It is a major tributary of the Zambezi, and of Zambia's principal rivers, it is the most central and the most urban, and the longest and largest lying wholly within Zambia....
in then North-Eastern Rhodesia, Burnham saw many similarities to copper deposits he had worked in the United States, and he encountered native peoples wearing copper bracelets. His expeditions in Rhodesia were so important that the
Royal Geographical SocietyThe Royal Geographical Society is a British learned society founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences...
elected him a Fellow. Later, the British South Africa Company built the mining towns of the Copperbelt and a railroad to transport the copper through
MozambiqueMozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
.
Second Matabele War
In March 1896, the Matabele again revolted against the authority of the British South Africa Company in what is now celebrated in
ZimbabweZimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
as the First War of Independence. Mlimo, the Matabele spiritual leader, is credited with fomenting much of the anger that led to this confrontation. Matabeleland defenses were in disarray due to the ill-fated
Jameson RaidThe Jameson Raid was a botched raid on Paul Kruger's Transvaal Republic carried out by a British colonial statesman Leander Starr Jameson and his Rhodesian and Bechuanaland policemen over the New Year weekend of 1895–96...
, and in the first few months of the war alone hundreds of white settlers were killed. With few troops to support them, the settlers quickly built a laager in the centre of Bulawayo on their own and mounted patrols under such figures as Burnham,
Baden-PowellRobert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, Bt, OM, GCMG, GCVO, KCB , also known as B-P or Lord Baden-Powell, was a lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, and founder of the Scout Movement....
, and
SelousFrederick Courteney Selous DSO was a British explorer, officer, hunter, and conservationist, famous for his exploits in south and east of Africa. His real-life adventures inspired Sir H. Rider Haggard to create the fictional Allan Quatermain character. Selous was also a good friend of Theodore...
. An estimated 50,000 Matabele retreated into their stronghold of the Matobo Hills near Bulawayo, a region that became the scene of the fiercest fighting against the white settler patrols.
Assassination of Mlimo
The turning point in the war came when Burnham and a young scout named Bonar Armstrong found their way through Matobo Hills to the sacred cave where Mlimo had been hiding. Not far from the cave was a village of about 100 huts filled with many warriors. The two scouts tethered their horses to a thicket and crawled on their bellies, screening their slow, cautious movements by means of branches held before them. Once inside the cave, they waited until Mlimo entered. Mlimo was said to be about 60 years old, with very dark skin, sharp-featured; American news reports of the time described him as having a cruel, crafty look. Burnham and Armstrong waited until Mlimo entered the cave and started his dance of immunity, at which point Burnham shot Mlimo just below the heart.
The two scouts then leapt over the dead Mlimo and ran down a trail toward their horses. Hundreds of warriors, encamped nearby, picked up their arms and searched for the attackers. To distract the Matabele, Burnham set fire to the village. The two men got on their horses and rode back to Bulawayo. Shortly after learning of the assassination of Mlimo, Cecil Rhodes boldly walked unarmed into the Ndebele stronghold in Matobo Hills and persuaded the
impiAn Impi is an isiZulu word for any armed body of men. However, in English it is often used to refer to a Zulu regiment, which is called an ibutho in Zulu. Its beginnings lie far back in historic tribal warfare customs, where groups of armed men called impis battled...
to lay down their arms, thus ending the Second Matabele War.
Klondike Gold Rush
With the Matabele war over, Burnham decided it was time to leave Africa and move on to other adventures. The family returned to California where Burnham left his wife and young son Bruce with his mother. Soon after, he and his eldest son Roderick, then 12 years old, traveled to Alaska and the
YukonYukon is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River. The word Yukon means "Great River" in Gwich’in....
to prospect in the
Klondike Gold RushThe Klondike Gold Rush, also called the Yukon Gold Rush, the Alaska Gold Rush and the Last Great Gold Rush, was an attempt by an estimated 100,000 people to travel to the Klondike region the Yukon in north-western Canada between 1897 and 1899 in the hope of successfully prospecting for gold...
. Upon hearing of the
Spanish-American WarThe Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
, Burnham rushed home to volunteer his services, but before he could get to the fighting the war was already over. Burnham then returned to the Klondike. Colonel
Theodore RooseveltTheodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
regretted this as much as Burnham and paid him a great tribute in his book.
Second Boer War
In January 1900, while prospecting in
Skagway, AlaskaSkagway is a first-class borough in Alaska, on the Alaska Panhandle. It was formerly a city first incorporated in 1900 that was re-incorporated as a borough on June 25, 2007. As of the 2000 census, the population of the city was 862...
, Burnham received the following telegram:
Lord RobertsField Marshal Frederick Sleigh Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts, Bt, VC, KG, KP, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, KStJ, PC was a distinguished Indian born British soldier who regarded himself as Anglo-Irish and one of the most successful British commanders of the 19th century.-Early life:Born at Cawnpore, India, on...
appoints you on his personal staff as Chief of Scouts. If you accept, come at once the quickest way possible. Although Cape Town is at the opposite end of the globe from the Klondike, he left within the hour. He would arrive at the front just before the
Battle of PaardebergThe Battle of Paardeberg or Perdeberg was a major battle during the Second Anglo-Boer War. It was fought near Paardeberg Drift on the banks of the Modder River in the Orange Free State near Kimberley....
. During the war, Burnham spent much time behind the Boer lines gathering information and blowing up railway bridges and tracks. He was twice captured and twice escaped, but he was also disabled for a time by his near-fatal wounds.
In a step that was unusual for a foreigner, Burnham was given a commission by Lord Roberts and the rank of captain. Burnham was first captured while trying to warn a British column approaching
Thaba' NchuThaba Nchu is a town in Free State, South Africa, located 60 km east of Bloemfontein. Its population is largely made up of Tswana and Sotho people. The town was settled in the 1830s and officially established in 1873...
. He came upon a group of Boers hiding on the banks of the river, toward which the British were even then advancing. Cut off from his own side, Burnham chose to signal the approaching soldiers even though it would expose him to capture. With a red kerchief, Burnham signaled the soldiers to turn back, but the column paid no attention and plodded steadily on into the ambush, while Burnham was at once taken prisoner. In the fight that followed, Burnham pretended to receive a wound in the knee. Limping heavily and groaning with pain, he was placed in a wagon with the officers who really were wounded, and who, in consequence, were not closely guarded. Later that evening, Burnham slipped over the driver's seat, dropped between the two wheels of the wagon, lowered himself and fell between the legs of the oxen on his back in the road. In an instant the wagon had passed over him safely, and while the dust still hung above the trail he rolled rapidly over into the ditch at the side of the road and lay motionless. It was four days before he was able to re-enter the British lines, during which time he had been lying in the open veldt. He had subsisted on one biscuit and two handfuls of "mealies" (i.e.,
maizeMaize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
).
On June 2, 1900, while trying by night to blow up the bridge on the
PretoriaPretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...
-Delagoa Bay railway line at Bronkhorstspruit, 20 miles (32 km) east of
PretoriaPretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...
and a vital link to the sea, Burnham was surrounded by a party of Boers and could save himself only by instant flight. He had all but gotten away when a bullet caught his horse; it crashed to the ground dead, crushing Burnham beneath it and knocking him senseless. He continued in a dazed state for nearly a day and when he came to his senses he found that both friends and foes had departed. Although still suffering the most acute agony, Burnham heroically crept back to the railroad, placed his charges, and blew up the line in two places. Knowing the explosion would soon bring the Boers, he crept on his hands and knees to an empty
kraalKraal is an Afrikaans and Dutch word for an enclosure for cattle or other livestock, located within an African settlement or village surrounded by a palisade, mud wall, or other fencing, roughly circular in form.In the Dutch language a kraal is a term derived from the Portuguese word , cognate...
and lay there for two days and nights insensible. Upon hearing the sound of distant firing, Burnham crawled toward the fighting. By then he was indifferent as to whether the gunshots were coming from the enemy or from his own people, but, as it chanced, he was picked up by a friendly patrol and carried to Pretoria. The surgeons discovered that in his fall Burnham had torn apart the muscles of the stomach and burst a blood-vessel. His survival, the doctors assured him, was due only to the fact that he had been without food for three days.
Burnham's injuries were so serious that he was ordered to England by Lord Roberts. Two days before leaving for London, he was promoted to the rank of major. On his arrival in England, Burnham was commanded to dine with Queen Victoria and to spend the night at
Osborne HouseOsborne House is a former royal residence in East Cowes, Isle of Wight, UK. The house was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home and rural retreat....
. A few months later, after the Queen's death, King Edward VII personally presented Burnham with the
Queen's South Africa MedalThe Queen's South Africa Medal was awarded to military personnel who served in the Boer War in South Africa between 11 October 1899 and 31 May 1902. Units from the British Army, Royal Navy, colonial forces who took part , civilians employed in official capacity and war correspondents...
with four bars for the battles at Driefontein (Mar 10, 1900),
JohannesburgJohannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
(May 31, 1900),
PaardebergThe Battle of Paardeberg or Perdeberg was a major battle during the Second Anglo-Boer War. It was fought near Paardeberg Drift on the banks of the Modder River in the Orange Free State near Kimberley....
(February 17–26, 1900), and
Cape ColonyThe Cape Colony, part of modern South Africa, was established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652, with the founding of Cape Town. It was subsequently occupied by the British in 1795 when the Netherlands were occupied by revolutionary France, so that the French revolutionaries could not take...
(October 11, 1899 – May 31, 1902), in addition to the cross of the
Distinguished Service OrderThe Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
, the second highest decoration in the British Army, for his heroism during the "victorious" March to Pretoria (2–5 June 1900). Nevertheless, Burnham received the highest awards of any American who served in the Second Boer War.
Burnham's most accomplished soldiers during the Second Boer War were
Lovat ScoutsThe Lovat Scouts were a British Army unit. The unit was first formed during the Second Boer War as a Scottish Highland yeomanry regiment of the British Army and is the first known military unit to wear a ghillie suit...
, a Scottish Highland regiment, whom he described as "half wolf and half jackrabbit." These scouts were well practiced in the arts of marksmanship, field craft, and
tacticsMilitary tactics, the science and art of organizing an army or an air force, are the techniques for using weapons or military units in combination for engaging and defeating an enemy in battle. Changes in philosophy and technology over time have been reflected in changes to military tactics. In...
. After the war, this regiment went on to become the
British army'sThe British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
first
sniperA sniper is a marksman who shoots targets from concealed positions or distances exceeding the capabilities of regular personnel. Snipers typically have specialized training and distinct high-precision rifles....
unit.
"Father of Scouting"
Burnham was already a celebrated scout when he first befriended Baden-Powell during the Second Matabele War. Himself a brilliant outdoorsman, Baden-Powell was a distinguished cavalry officer, and reportedly the finest
pig stickerBoar hunting is generally the practice of hunting wild boars, but can also extend to feral pigs and peccaries. A full-sized boar is a large animal armed with sharp tusks which it uses to defend itself. Boar hunting has often been a test of bravery....
in India. During the siege of Bulawayo, the two men rode many times into the Matobo Hills on patrol, and it was in these African hills that Burnham first introduced Baden-Powell to the ways and methods of the
indigenous peoples of the AmericasThe indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
, and taught him
woodcraft (better known today as
scoutcraftScoutcraft is a term used to cover a variety of woodcraft knowledge and skills required by people seeking to venture into wild country and sustain themselves independently. The term has been adopted by Scouting organizations to reflect skills and knowledge which are felt to be a core part of the...
). So impressed was Baden-Powell by Burnham's Scouting spirit that he fondly told people he "sucked him dry" of all he could possibly tell. It was here that Baden-Powell began to wear his signature
StetsonStetsons are the brand of hat manufactured by the John B. Stetson Company of St. Joseph, Missouri.Stetson eventually became the world’s largest hat maker, producing over 3.3 million hats a year in a factory spread over . Today Stetson remains a family-owned concern...
campaign hatA campaign cover is a broad-brimmed felt or straw hat, with a high crown, pinched symmetrically at the four corners .It is associated with the New Zealand Army, the Royal Canadian...
and kerchief for the first time. Both men recognized that wars were changing markedly and the British Army needed to adapt; so during their joint scouting missions, Baden-Powell and Burnham discussed the concept of a broad training program in woodcraft for young men, rich in
explorationExploration is the act of searching or traveling around a terrain for the purpose of discovery of resources or information. Exploration occurs in all non-sessile animal species, including humans...
,
trackingTracking is a Scouting activity which involves laying a trail or following a trail laid by others. A trail is a series of signs, largely comprising directions, which are laid on the ground. Tracking also involves interpreting bird language to better understand relevant changes in baseline and if...
,
fieldcraftFieldcraft is a term used especially in American, Canadian and British military circles to describe the basic military skills required to operate stealthily and the methods used to do so, which can differ during day or night and due to weather or terrain...
, and self-reliance. In Africa, no scout embodied these traits more than Burnham. While Baden-Powell went on to refine the concept of Scouting and become the founder of the international Scouting movement, Burnham has been called the movement's father.
Burnham later became close friends with others involved in the Scouting movement in the United States, such as
Theodore RooseveltTheodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
, the Chief Scout Citizen, and
Gifford PinchotGifford Pinchot was the first Chief of the United States Forest Service and the 28th Governor of Pennsylvania...
, the Chief Scout Forester.
The
Boy Scouts of AmericaThe Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...
(BSA) made Burnham an Honorary Scout in 1927, and for his noteworthy and extraordinary service to the Scouting movement, Burnham was bestowed the highest commendation given by the Boy Scouts of America, the
Silver Buffalo AwardThe Silver Buffalo Award is the national-level distinguished service award of the Boy Scouts of America. It is presented for noteworthy and extraordinary service to youth on a national basis, either as part of, or independent of the Scouting program...
, in 1936. Throughout his life he remained active in Scouting at both the regional and the national level in the United States and he corresponded regularly with Baden-Powell on Scouting topics.
The low-key Burnham and Baden-Powell remained close friends for their long lives. The seal on the Burnham — Baden-Powell letters at
YaleRapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
and
StanfordThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
expired in 2000 and the true depth of their friendship and love of Scouting has again been revealed. In 1931, Burnham read the speech dedicating Mount Baden-Powell in California, to his old Scouting friend. Their friendship, and equal status in the world of Scouting and conservation, is honored with the dedication of the adjoining peak,
Mount BurnhamMount Burnham is one of the highest peaks in the San Gabriel Mountains. It is in the Sheep Mountain Wilderness. It is named for Frederick Russell Burnham the famous American military scout who taught scoutcraft to Robert Baden-Powell and became one of the inspirations for the founding of the Boy...
, in his honor.
Burnham's descendants followed in his footsteps and are active in Scouting and in the military. His son Roderick enlisted in the U.S. Army and fought in
World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
France. His grandson, Frederick Russell Burnham II, was a leader in the BSA and a
Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
veteran. His great-grandson,
Russell Adam Burnham1LT Russell Adam Burnham , U.S. Army Physician Assistant, is the great-grandson of Frederick Russell Burnham , D.S.O., the 2003 U.S. Army Soldier of the Year, 2007 U.S. Army Medical Corps NCO of the Year, and an Eagle Scout....
is an
Eagle ScoutEagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America . A Scout who attains this rank is called an Eagle Scout or Eagle. Since its introduction in 1911, the Eagle Scout rank has been earned by more than 2 million young men...
and was
United States ArmyThe United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
's Soldier of the Year in 2003.
Later in life
Post war
After recovering from his wounds, Burnham served as the London office manager for the
Wa SyndicateWa is the capital of the Upper West Region of Ghana and is the main city of the Wala people. The majority of the inhabitants are Muslim. It is the seat of the Wa-Na, the Paramount Chief of the Wala traditional area. Features of the town include several mosques, the Wa-Na Palace, a museum and a...
. In 1901, while still employed by the Wa Syndicate, he left London to lead an expedition through
GhanaGhana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
and
Upper VoltaUpper Volta was a colony of French West Africaestablished on March 1, 1919, from territories that had been part of the colonies of Upper Senegal and Niger and the Côte d'Ivoire...
to look for minerals and ways to improve river navigation in the region. From 1902–1904, Burnham was employed by the
East Africa SyndicateEast Africa Protectorate was an area of East Africa occupying roughly the same terrain as present-day Kenya from the Indian Ocean inland to Uganda and the Great Rift Valley...
. He led a mineral prospecting expedition which traveled extensively in the area around Lake Rudolph (now
Lake TurkanaLake Turkana , formerly known as Lake Rudolf, is a lake in the Great Rift Valley in Kenya, with its far northern end crossing into Ethiopia. It is the world's largest permanent desert lake and the world's largest alkaline lake...
), and he discovered a lake of carbonate of soda in
TanzaniaThe United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
.
Yaqui
Burnham returned to North America and for the next few years became associated with the
Yaqui RiverThe Yaqui River is a river in the state of Sonora in northwestern Mexico. Being the largest river system in the state of Sonora, the Yaqui river is used for irrigation....
irrigation project in Mexico. While investigating the Yaqui valley for mineral and agricultural resources, Burnham reasoned that a dam could provide year-round water to rich alluvial soil in the valley; turning the region into one of the garden spots of the world and generate much needed electricity. He purchased water rights and some 300 acres (1.2 km²) of land in this region and contacted an old friend from Africa,
John Hays HammondJohn Hays Hammond was a famous mining engineer, diplomat, and philanthropist. Known as the man with the midas touch, he amassed a sizable fortune before the age of 40. An early advocate of deep-level mining, Hammond was given complete charge of Cecil Rhodes' mines in South Africa and made each...
, who conducted his own studies and then purchased an additional 900000 acres (3,642.2 km²) of this land—an area the size of
Rhode IslandThe state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
. Burnham together with
Charles Frederick HolderCharles Frederick Holder was the inventor of big-game fishing and a founder of Pasadena's Tournament of Roses and the Tuna Club of Avalon on Santa Catalina Island....
, in 1908, made important archeological discoveries of
MayanThe Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
civilization in this region, including the Esperanza Stone. He became a close business associate of Hammond and led a team of 500 men in guarding mining properties owned by Hammond, J.P. Morgan, and the
GuggenheimsThe Guggenheim family is an American family, of Swiss Jewish ancestry. Beginning with Meyer Guggenheim, who arrived in America in 1847, the family were known for their global successes in mining and smelting . During the 19th century, the family possessed one of the largest fortunes in the world...
in the Mexican state of
SonoraSonora officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 72 municipalities; the capital city is Hermosillo....
. Just as the irrigation and mining projects were nearing completion in 1912, a long series of
Mexican revolutionsThe Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
began. The final blow to these efforts came in 1917 when Mexico passed laws prohibiting the sale of land to foreigners. Burnham and Hammond carried their properties until 1930 and then sold them to the Mexican government.
Espionage
During
World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Burnham was living in California and was active in counterespionage for Britain. Much of it involved a famous Boer spy, Capt. Fritz Joubert Duquesne, who became a German spy in both World Wars and claimed to have killed
Field Marshal KitchenerField Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener KG, KP, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, ADC, PC , was an Irish-born British Field Marshal and proconsul who won fame for his imperial campaigns and later played a central role in the early part of the First World War, although he died halfway...
while en route to meet with the Russians. During the Second Boer War, Burnham and Duquesne were each under orders to assassinate the other, but it was not until 1910 that the two men first met while both were in Washington, D.C., separately lobbying Congress to pass a bill in favor of the importation of African game animals into the United States (H.R. 23621). Duquesne was twice arrested by the FBI and in 1942 he, along with the 32 other Nazi agents who made up the
Duquesne Spy RingThe Duquesne Spy Ring is the largest espionage case in United States history that ended in convictions. A total of thirty-three members of a German espionage network headed by Frederick "Fritz" Joubert Duquesne were convicted after a lengthy espionage investigation by the Federal Bureau of...
, was sent to prison for espionage in the largest spy ring conviction in U.S. history.
During this period, Burnham was one of the eighteen officers selected by former U.S. president
Theodore RooseveltTheodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
to raise a volunteer infantry division for service in France in 1917 shortly after the United States entered the war. A plan to raise volunteer soldiers from the Western U.S. came out of a meeting of the New York based
Rocky Mountain ClubThe Rocky Mountain Club was incorporated in New York City as an "Eastern Home of Western Men." with the purpose to: "to create good-fellowship among the members and advance the interests of the Rock Mountain States."...
and Burnham was put in charge of both the general organization and recruitment from the Southwest. Congress gave Roosevelt the authority to raise up to four divisions similar to the
Rough RidersThe Rough Riders is the name bestowed on the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, one of three such regiments raised in 1898 for the Spanish-American War and the only one of the three to see action. The United States Army was weakened and left with little manpower after the American Civil War...
of 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry Regiment and to the British Army 25th (Frontiersmen) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers; however, as
Commander-in-chiefA commander-in-chief is the commander of a nation's military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function. As a practical term it refers to the military...
, President
Woodrow WilsonThomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
refused to make use of Roosevelt's volunteers and the unit disbanded.
Oil wealth
Although Burnham had lived all over the world, he never had a great deal of wealth to show for his efforts. It was not until he returned to California, the place of his youth, that he struck it rich. In 1923, Burnham struck oil at Dominguez Hill, California. In the first 10 years of operation, the Burnham Exploration Company paid out $10.2 million in dividends.
Conservation
An avid
conservationistConservationists are proponents or advocates of conservation. They advocate for the protection of all the species in an ecosystem with a strong focus on the natural environment...
and hunter, Burnham supported the early conservation programs of his friends Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot. He and his associate John Hayes Hammond led novel game expeditions to Africa with the goal of finding large animals such as
Giant ElandThe giant eland is an open forest savannah antelope. It is found in Central African Republic, South Sudan, Cameroon and Senegal. There are two subspecies: the endangered T. d. derbianus, found in Senegal's Niokolo-Koba National Park, and the low risk T. d...
,
hippopotamusThe hippopotamus , or hippo, from the ancient Greek for "river horse" , is a large, mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae After the elephant and rhinoceros, the hippopotamus is the third largest land mammal and the heaviest...
,
zebraZebras are several species of African equids united by their distinctive black and white stripes. Their stripes come in different patterns unique to each individual. They are generally social animals that live in small harems to large herds...
, and various bird species that might be bred in the United States and become game for future American sportsmen. Burnham, Hammond, and Duquesne appeared several times before the Committee on Agriculture to ask for help in importing large African animals. In 1914, he helped establish the Wild Life Protective League of American, Department of Southern California, and served as its first Secretary.
In his later years, Burnham filled various public offices and also served as a member of the
Boone and Crockett ClubThe Boone and Crockett Club conservationist organization, founded in the United States in 1887 by Theodore Roosevelt. The club was named in honor of Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett, whom the club's founders viewed as ethical hunters and honest men who loved the outdoors and earthly pursuits...
of New York, and as a founding member of the American Committee for International Wildlife Protection (now a committee of the
World Conservation UnionThe International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources is an international organization dedicated to finding "pragmatic solutions to our most pressing environment and development challenges." The organization publishes the IUCN Red List, compiling information from a network of...
). He was a founding member of the
Save-the-Redwoods LeagueThe Save the Redwoods League is an organization dedicated to the protection of the remaining Coast Redwood trees in the state of California. It was founded in 1918 by Frederick Russell Burnham, Madison Grant, John C. Merriam, and Henry Fairfield Osborn....
, he helped lobby for and create the
Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife RefugeThe Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge is located in the Sonoran Desert in southwestern Arizona in the United States. The refuge, established in 1939 to protect Desert Bighorn Sheep, is located along of the U.S.-Mexico border, and covers 860,010 acres — larger than the land area of the state...
and the
Kofa National Wildlife RefugeThe Kofa National Wildlife Refuge is located northeast of Yuma, Arizona, southeast of Quartzsite, Arizona, in the southwestern United States. The refuge, established in 1939 to protect Desert Bighorn Sheep, encompasses over of the Yuma Desert region of the Sonoran Desert...
for
Desert Bighorn SheepThe Desert Bighorn Sheep is a subspecies of Bighorn Sheep that occurs in the desert Southwest regions of the United States and in the northern regions of Mexico. The trinomial of this species commemorates the American naturalist Edward William Nelson...
in Arizona, and he campaigned for state parks in California. He was one of the original members of the first
California State Parks CommissionThe California Department of Parks and Recreation, also known as California State Parks, manages the California state parks system. The system administers 278 parks and 1.4 million acres , with over of coastline; of lake and river frontage; nearly 15,000 campsites; and of hiking, biking, and...
, serving from 1927 to 1934, and late in his life he was president of the
Southwest MuseumThe Southwest Museum of the American Indian is a museum, library, and archive located in the Mt. Washington area of Los Angeles, California. It is part of the Autry National Center. Its collections deal mainly with the American Indian...
of Los Angeles from 1938 until 1940.
Appearance
At 5 ft 4 in (1.62 m), Burnham was slight, but he was also muscular and bronzed, with a finely formed square jaw. He had a boyish appearance which he used to his advantage on numerous occasions. His most noticeable feature was his steady, grey-blue eyes. Contemporary reports had it that Burnham's gaze appeared to never leave those of the person he was looking at, and yet somehow could simultaneously monitor all the details of the physical surroundings. It was also said that Burnham's eyes possessed a far-away look such as those acquired by people whose occupation has caused them to watch continually at sea or on great plains.
Mannerisms
Burnham would not smoke and seldom drank alcohol, fearing these habits would injure the acuteness of his sense of smell. He found ways to train himself in mental patience, took power naps instead of indulging in periods of long sleep, and drank very little liquid. He trained himself to accept these abstinences in order to endure the most appalling fatigues, hunger, thirst, and wounds, so that when scouting or traveling where there was no water, he might still be able to exist. On more than one occasion he survived in environments where others would have died, or were in fact dying, of exhaustion. To him scouting was as exact a study as is the piano, and it was said that he could read the face of nature as easily as most could read their morning newspaper. He was quiet-mannered and courteous, according to contemporaries. Their reports describe a man who was neither shy nor self-conscious, who was extremely modest, and who seldom spoke of his many adventures.
Family
Burnham's wife of 55 years, Blanche Blick Burnham (February 25, 1862 - December 22, 1939) of
Nevada, IowaNevada is a city in and the county seat of Story County, Iowa, United States. The population was 6,798 in the 2010 census, an increase from 6,658 in the 2000 census. It is also part of the 'Ames, Iowa Metropolitan Statistical Area', which is a part of the larger 'Ames-Boone, Iowa Combined...
, accompanied him in very primitive conditions through many travels in both the Southwest United States and Southern Africa. They had three children together, but only one survived into adulthood. In the early years, she watched over the children and the pack animals, always careful to keep a rifle within arms length. In the dark of night, she used her rifle many times against lions and
hyenaHyenas or Hyaenas are the animals of the family Hyaenidae of suborder feliforms of the Carnivora. It is the fourth smallest biological family in the Carnivora , and one of the smallest in the mammalia...
and, during the Siege of Bulawayo, against Ndebele warriors. Several members of the Blick family joined the Burnhams in Rhodesia, moved with them to England, and returned to the United States with the Burnhams to live near
Three Rivers, CaliforniaThree Rivers is a census-designated place in Tulare County, California, United States. The population was 2,182 at the 2010 census, down from 2,248 at the 2000 census....
. When Burnham Exploration Company struck it rich in 1923, the Burnhams moved to a mansion in a new housing development then known as Hollywoodland (a name later shortened to "Hollywood") and took many trips around the world in high style. In 1939, Blanche suffered a stroke. She died a month later and was buried in the Three Rivers Cemetery.
Burnham's first son, Roderick (August 22, 1886 – July 2, 1976), was born in Pasadena, California, but accompanied the family to Africa and learned the
Northern Ndebele languageThe Northern Ndebele language, isiNdebele, or Ndebele is an African language belonging to the Nguni group of Bantu languages, and spoken by the Ndebele or Matabele people of Zimbabwe. It is commonly known as Sindebele....
. He went to Skagway, Alaska with his father, and then to a military school in France in 1900. In 1904, he attended the
University of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, joined the football team, but left Berkeley after a dispute with his coach. From 1905-08, he went to the
University of ArizonaThe University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
, joined the
Delta Kappa EpsilonDelta Kappa Epsilon is a fraternity founded at Yale College in 1844 by 15 men of the sophomore class who had not been invited to join the two existing societies...
fraternity, played the position of
running backA running back is a gridiron football position, who is typically lined up in the offensive backfield. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback for a rushing play, to catch passes from out of the backfield, and to block.There are usually one or two running...
, and became the captain of the football team. He attended the Michigan School of Mines (now
Michigan Technological UniversityMichigan Technological University is a public research university located in Houghton, Michigan, United States. Its main campus sits on on a bluff overlooking Portage Lake...
) in 1910, became a
geologistA geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...
, and worked for Union Oil as Manager of Lands and Foreign Exploration helping to develop the first wells in Mexico and
VenezuelaVenezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
. He took time off from his job to serve in the U.S. Army in World War I and fought in France. He and his father became minority owners of the Burnham Exploration Company, incorporated in 1919 by Harris Hays Hammond (the son of John Hays Hammond, Sr). In 1930, he and
Paramount PicturesParamount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
founder
W. W. HodkinsonWilliam Wadsworth Hodkinson , known more commonly as W. W. Hodkinson, was born in Independence, Kansas. Known as The Man Who Invented Hollywood, he opened one of the first movie theaters in Ogden, Utah in 1907 and within just a few years changed the way movies were produced, distributed, and...
started the Central American Aviation Corporation, the first airline in
GuatemalaGuatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
.
Nada (May 1894 - May 19, 1896), Burnham’s daughter who was the
first white childThe birth of the first white child was a celebrated occasion across many parts of the New World. Such births are a matter of pride for many townships, and they are commemorated with plaques and monuments at the location of the event. The birth was seen as such an honor that it was at times...
born in Bulawayo, died of fever and starvation during the Siege of Bulawayo. She was buried three days later in the Pioneer Cemetery, plot #144, in Bulawayo, now Zimbabwe. Nada is the
ZuluZulu is the language of the Zulu people with about 10 million speakers, the vast majority of whom live in South Africa. Zulu is the most widely spoken home language in South Africa as well as being understood by over 50% of the population...
word for
lilyAgapanthus africanus is a native of the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.It has a short stem bearing a tuft of long, narrow, arching leaves 10–35 cm long and 1–2 cm broad, and a central flower stalk 25–60 cm tall, ending in an umbel of 20-30 white, or bright blue, funnel-shaped...
and she was named after the heroine in Sir
H. Rider HaggardSir Henry Rider Haggard, KBE was an English writer of adventure novels set in exotic locations, predominantly Africa, and a founder of the Lost World literary genre. He was also involved in agricultural reform around the British Empire...
’s Zulu tale,
Nada the Lily (1892). Three of Haggard's books are dedicated to Burnham's daughter, Nada:
The Wizard (1896),
Elissa: The Doom of Zimbabwe (1899), and
Black Heart and White Heart: A Zulu Idyll (1900).
Burnham’s youngest son, Bruce B. Burnham (1897–1902), was staying with family in London when he accidentally drowned in the River Thames.
His brother Howard (1870–1918), born shortly before the family moved to Los Angeles, lost one leg at the age of 14 and suffered from tuburculosis. As a teen he lived with Fred in California and learned from his brother the art of Scoutcraft, how to shoot, and how to ride the range, all in spite of his wooden leg. Howard went to Africa and became a mining engineer in the gold mines of Johannesburg, South Africa and later wrote a text book on
Modern Mine Valuation. He traveled the world and for a time teamed up with Fred on Yaqui River irregation project in Mexico. During World War I, Howard worked as a spy for the French government, operating behind enemy lines in southwest Germany. Throughout the war he used his wooden leg to conceal tools he needed for spying. From his death bed, Howard returned to France via
SwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
and shared his vital data and secrets with the French government: the Germans were not opening a new front in the Alps and there was no need to move allied troops away from the
Western FrontFollowing the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
. Howard was buried at Cannes, France, leaving behind his wife and four children. He had been named after his second cousin, LT
Howard Mather BurnhamLt. Howard Mather Burnham , is best known for having fought and died at the Battle of Chickamauga in Georgia, during the American Civil War.-Early life:...
who was killed in action in the
American Civil WarThe American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
.
His first cousin
Charles Edward RussellCharles Edward Russell was an American journalist, politician, and a co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People...
(1860–1941) was a journalist and politician and also a founder of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored PeopleThe National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...
(NAACP). The author of a number of books of biography and social commentary Russell won a Pulitzer Prize in 1928 for his biography:
The American Orchestra and Theodore Thomas.
In 1943, at 83 years of age, Burnham married his young typist, Ilo K. Willetts Burnham (1914–1958). The couple sold their mansion and moved to Santa Barbara in 1946.
Burnham was a descendant of
Thomas BurnhamThomas Burnham was born in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. A lawyer and landowner, he arrived in the American Colonies in 1637, and lived most of his adult live in Connecticut. He was among the earliest puritan settlers in Connecticut, living in Podunk and finally settling in Hartford,...
(1617–1688) of
Hartford, ConnecticutHartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
, the first American ancestor of a large number of Burnhams. The descendants of Thomas Burnham have been noted in every American war, including the
French and Indian warThe French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
.
Death
Burnham died at 86 on September 1, 1947 of heart failure at his home in
Santa Barbara, CaliforniaSanta Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
. At a private ceremony he was buried at Three Rivers, California, near his old cattle ranch, La Cuesta. His memorial stone was designed by his only surviving child, Roderick. Also buried at Three Rivers cemetery is his first wife, Blanche Blick Burnham, several members of the Blick family who had also pioneered in 19th century Rhodesia with Burnham for a time, his son Roderick, his granddaughter Martha Burnham Burleigh, and the Montana cowboy “Pete” Ingram who survived the Shangani Patrol massacre along with Burnham.
Legacy
Ernest HemingwayErnest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
acquired the rights to produce a film version of
Scouting on Two Continents in late 1958.
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
immediately contracted Hemingway to produce the film for television, with
Gary CooperFrank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
expressing an interest in playing the part of Burnham. Hemingway was already behind schedule in his other commitments and never started on the film when he committed suicide in July 1961.
Burnham was portrayed by
Will HutchinsWill Hutchins is an American actor most noted for playing the lead role of the young lawyer Tom Brewster in the Warner Brothers Western television series Sugarfoot on ABC from 1957-1961.-Biography:...
in
Shangani PatrolShangani Patrol is a war film based upon the non-fiction book "A Time to Die" by Robert Cary , and the historical accounts of the Shangani Patrol, with Brian O'Shaughnessy as Major Allan Wilson and Will Hutchins as the lead Scout Frederick Russell Burnham...
(1970), a feature film by David Millin. Filmed on location in Bulawayo,
RhodesiaRhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
by RPM Film Studios, 35 mm copies of the film are now preserved by the National Film, Video and Sound Archives, Pretoria, South Africa.
In 1933, the newly discovered
Serbelodon burnhami (now
Amebelodon burnhami), an extinct
gomphothereGomphotheriidae is a diverse taxonomic family of extinct elephant-like animals , called gomphotheres. They were widespread in North America during the Miocene and Pliocene epochs, 12-1.6 million years ago. Some lived in parts of Eurasia, Beringia and, following the Great American Interchange,...
(Shovel-Tusker elephant) from North America, was officially named after Burnham.
Union Oil was the official sponsor of the Major Burnham Bowling Trophy, an annual bowling event supported by the
Boy Scouts of AmericaThe Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...
and held in California.
On My Honor, an epic film conceived and begun by
Cecil B. DeMilleCecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
, was to document the founding of the Scouting movement but was left unfinished because of the legendary producer's untimely death in January 1959. In the screenplay started by Jesse Lasky, Jr., the film would have focused on Baden-Powell and the Scouting pioneers who were a major influence on Baden-Powell, including Burnham. Even after DeMille's death, associate producer
Henry WilcoxonHenry Wilcoxon was an actor born in Roseau, Dominica, British West Indies, and best known as a leading man in many of Cecil B. DeMille's films, also serving as DeMille's associate producer on his later films....
continued to invest substantial work on the film until 1962, and
Sydney BoxSydney Box was a British film producer and screenwriter, brother of another prominent British filmmaker, Betty Box. He produced the postwar screenplay, The Seventh Veil, which earned him the 1946 Oscar for best original screenplay with his then wife Muriel Box after which the couple were hired by...
was hired to assist with the script. Starting in 2001, producers
Jerry MolenGerald Robert Molen is a high profile American film producer. He works very closely with Steven Spielberg, having produced five of his films, and won an Academy Award for co-producing Schindler's List...
and Robert Starling began work to finish DeMille's project, including an updated screenplay by Starling based on the earlier work of Lasky and Box.
Allan Quatermain and Indiana Jones
Rider Haggard's fictional
Allan QuatermainAllan Quatermain is the protagonist of H. Rider Haggard's 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines and its various prequels and sequels. Allan Quatermain was also the title of a book in this sequence.- History :...
character was heavily influenced by his close friendship with Burnham. Quatermain and Burnham were both small and wiry
VictorianThe Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
adventurers in colonial Africa, both sought and discovered ancient treasures and civilizations, both battled large wild animals and native peoples, both were renowned for their ability to track, even at night, and both men had strikingly similar nicknames: Quatermain, "Watcher-by-Night"; Burnham, "He-who-sees-in-the-dark". But Burnham’s influence on fictional adventurers wasn’t to end there. In the 1970s, a young movie director,
George LucasGeorge Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
, decided to write the ultimate adventure film. The template for his hero,
Indiana JonesColonel Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., Ph.D. is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Indiana Jones franchise. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg created the character in homage to the action heroes of 1930s film serials...
, was the hero of the H. Rider Haggard books, Allan Quatermain.
Works
- Frederick Russell Burnham Papers. Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University. A large collection of Burnham's documents: Correspondence, 1864–1947. Subject Files, 1890–1947. Writings, 1893–1946. Personal and Family Papers, 1879–1951. Photographs, ca. 1893–1924.
- Frederick Russell Burnham Papers, 1879–1979, Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Stanford University. Another large collection of Burnham's documents: Correspondence, speeches and writings, clippings, other printed matter, photographs, and memorabilia, relating to the Matabele Wars of 1893 and 1896 in Rhodesia, the Second Boer War, exploration expeditions in Africa, and gold mining in Alaska during the Klondike gold rush.
- Burnham Footage of Southern and Eastern Africa, 35 min. silent b&w video. Footage shot in South Africa, Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, Zambia and eastern Africa during a family trip. Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
archives. call# 85.4.1; AF-85.4.1 (1929)
External links