John Henry Patterson (author)
Encyclopedia
Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson, DSO
(10 November 1867 – 18 June 1947), known as J.H. Patterson, was an Anglo-Irish
soldier
, hunter, author
and Zionist, best known for his book The Man-Eaters of Tsavo
(1907), which details his experiences while building a railway in Kenya
in 1898-99. In the 1996 film The Ghost and the Darkness
, he was portrayed by actor Val Kilmer
.
, Ballymahon
, County Westmeath
, Ireland
, to a Protestant father and Roman Catholic mother. Young Patterson joined the British Army
at the age of seventeen, rose quickly through the ranks, and eventually attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Essex Yeomanry
, retiring from the military in 1920.
In 1898, Patterson was commissioned by the British East Africa Company to oversee the construction of a railway bridge over the Tsavo
river in present-day Kenya
. He arrived at the site in March of that year.
attacks began to take place on the worker population, with the lions dragging men out of their tents at night and feeding on their victims. Despite the building of thorn barriers (bomas
) around the camps, bonfires at night and strict after-dark curfews, the attacks escalated dramatically, to the point where the bridge construction eventually ceased due to a fearful, mass departure of the work force. Along with the obvious financial consequences of the work stoppage, Patterson also faced the challenge of maintaining his authority and even his personal safety at this remote site against the increasingly hostile and superstitious workers, many of whom were convinced that the lions were in fact evil spirits, come to punish those who worked at Tsavo
, and that he was the cause of the misfortune because the attacks had coincided with his arrival.
The man-eating behaviour was considered highly unusual for lions and was eventually confirmed to be the work of a pair of rogue males, who were believed to be responsible for as many as one hundred and forty deaths, although the actual number is still uncertain due to a lack of accurate records at the time. Railway records officially attribute only twenty-eight worker deaths to the lions, but they were also reported to have killed a significant number of local people of which no official record was ever kept.
While various theories have been put forward to account for the lions’ man-eating behaviour (poor burial practices, low populations of food source animals due to disease, etc.), it is believed the cause may have been due to dental disease. One of the lions skulls was found to have a badly abscessed canine that could have hindered normal hunting behavior, although this cause is still disputed as it only accounts for the behavior of one of the lions involved. There was also a slave trade route through the area, which contributed to the number of abandoned bodies. Patterson reported seeing considerable instances of unburied human remains and opened graves in the area, and it is believed that the lions (which, like most predators will readily scavenge for food) adapted to this abundant, accessible food supply, and eventually turned to humans as their primary food source.
With his reputation, livelihood and safety at stake, Patterson, an experienced tiger hunter from his military service in India
, undertook an extensive effort to deal with the crisis and after months of attempts and near misses, he finally killed the first lion on the night of December 9th, 1898, and killed the second one on the morning of December 29th (narrowly escaping death in the process). The lions were maneless like many others in the Tsavo area and both were exceptionally large. Each lion was over nine feet long from nose to tip of tail and required eight men to carry it back to the camp.
Patterson was immediately declared a hero by the workers and local people, and word of the event quickly spread far and wide, as evidenced by the subsequent telegrams of congratulations he received. Word of the incident was even mentioned in the House of Lords
in the British Parliament, by then Prime Minister
Lord Salisbury. With the man-eater threat finally eliminated, the work force returned and the Tsavo
railway bridge was completed on February 7, 1899. Although the rails were later destroyed by German
soldiers during World War I
, the stone foundations were left standing and the bridge was subsequently repaired. Ironically, the workers, who in earlier months had all but threatened to kill him, presented Patterson with a silver
bowl in appreciation for the risks he had undertaken on their behalf, with the following inscription:
Patterson always said that he considered the bowl to be his most highly prized and hardest won trophy.
In 1907, he published his first book, The Man-eaters of Tsavo
, which documented his adventures during his time there. It was the basis for three films; Bwana Devil
(1953), Killers of Kilimanjaro (1959) and the 1996 Paramount Pictures
film, The Ghost and the Darkness
, starring Val Kilmer
(as Patterson) and Michael Douglas
(as the fictional character "Remington").
In 1906, Patterson returned to the Tsavo area for a hunting trip. During the trip, he shot an eland
, which he noted possessed different features from elands in Southern Africa, where the species was first recognized. On returning to England
, Patterson had the head of the eland mounted, where it was seen by R. Lydekker, a member of the faculty of the British Museum
. Lydekker identified Patterson's trophy as a new subspecies
of eland, which he named Taurotragus oryx pattersonianius.
From 1907 until 1909, Patterson was Chief Game Warden in the East Africa Protectorate
, an experience he recounts in his second book, In the Grip of Nyika (1909). Unfortunately, while on a hunting safari
with a fellow British Army officer
, Corporal Audley Blyth and his wife Ethel, his reputation was tarnished by the mysterious death of Corporal Blyth due to a gunshot wound (possible suicide
– exact circumstances unknown). Witnesses confirmed that Patterson was not in Blyth’s tent when the shooting took place, and that it was in fact Blyth’s wife who was with him at the time, as she was reported as running (screaming) from the tent immediately following the shooting. Patterson had Blyth buried in the wilderness and then to the surprise of everyone, insisted on continuing the expedition instead of returning to the nearest post to report the incident. Shortly afterward, Patterson returned to England with Mrs. Blyth amid rumours of murder and an affair, and although he was never officially charged or censured, this incident would follow him for years afterward, most notably in the film The Macomber Affair
(1947) which was based on Ernest Hemingway
's adaptation of the incident.
In 1924, after speaking at the Field Museum in Chicago
, Illinois
, Patterson agreed to sell the Tsavo lion skins and skulls to the museum for the then sizeable sum of $5,000. The lions were then reconstructed and are now on permanent display along with the original skulls. The taxidermed lions are actually smaller than their original size, presumably because the skins had been originally trimmed for use as trophy rugs in Patterson's house prior to being reconstructed for display.
and World War I
. Although he was himself a Protestant, he became a major figure in Zionism
as the commander of both the Zion Mule Corps and the 38th Battalion
of the Royal Fusiliers (aka Jewish Legion
of the British Army
) in World War I, which would eventually serve as the foundation of the Israeli Defence Force decades later. During his time in command of the Jewish forces (who served with distinction in the Gallipoli
and Palestine
campaigns), Patterson was forced to deal with extensive, ongoing anti-semitism
toward his men from many of his superiors (as well as peers and subordinates), and more than once threatened to resign his commission to bring the inappropriate treatment of his men under scrutiny. He retired from the British Army in 1920 as a Lieutenant-Colonel (the same rank he held when the war started) after thirty-five years of service. It is generally accepted that much of the admiration and respect of his men (and modern-day supporters) is due to the fact that he essentially sacrificed any opportunity for promotion (and his military career in general) in his efforts to ensure his men were treated fairly. His last two books, With the Zionists at Gallipoli (1916) and With the Judaeans in Palestine (1922) are based on his experiences during these times. After his military career, Patterson continued his support of Zionism as a strong advocate toward the establishment of a separate Jewish state
in the Middle East
, which became a reality with the statehood of Israel
on 14 May 1948, less than a year after his death.
Patterson was close friends with many Zionist supporters and leaders, among them Vladimir Jabotinski and Benzion Netanyahu
(father of current Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu
). He was also the namesake of and Godfather
to Benzion's elder son, Lieutenant-Colonel Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu, who was the commander of the elite Israeli army commando unit Sayeret Matkal
. Netanyahu was the only member of the Israeli force to be killed in action on July 4th, 1976 during Operation Thunderbolt
at Entebbe
airport in Uganda
, Africa
, during which 103 (of 107) Israeli hostages were rescued from Palestinian
hijackers
who had diverted an Air France
passenger jet to the airport one week earlier. He was fatally wounded during the firefight with Ugandan Dictator
Idi Amin
's soldiers at the airport, who were supporting the hijackers. The operation is often referred to as Operation Yonatan
in his honor.
During the 1940s, Patterson and his wife, Frances ("Francie") Helena, lived in a modest home in La Jolla, California. Eventually, with his wife in need of regular medical care and his own health in decline, he took up residence at the home of his friend Marion Travis in Bel Air, California, where he eventually died in his sleep at seventy-nine years of age. His wife would pass away six weeks later in a San Diego nursing home. Both Patterson and his wife were cremated, and their ashes were interred at Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery, niche 952-OC in Los Angeles, California
.
According to Patterson's grandson, Alan Patterson (his only known living descendant), one of his grandfather's final wishes was that both he and his wife eventually be interred in Israel
, ideally, with the men he commanded during World War I
. The Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation (JASHP), Alan Patterson, Canadian representation and Beit Hagdudim have undertaken a coordinated effort to honor this request. As of November 2011, this effort is still ongoing (this section will be updated with details when plans for reinterment have been confirmed).
Distinguished Service Order
The 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...
(10 November 1867 – 18 June 1947), known as J.H. Patterson, was an Anglo-Irish
Anglo-Irish
Anglo-Irish was a term used primarily in the 19th and early 20th centuries to identify a privileged social class in Ireland, whose members were the descendants and successors of the Protestant Ascendancy, mostly belonging to the Church of Ireland, which was the established church of Ireland until...
soldier
Soldier
A soldier is a member of the land component of national armed forces; whereas a soldier hired for service in a foreign army would be termed a mercenary...
, hunter, author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and Zionist, best known for his book The Man-Eaters of Tsavo
The Man-eaters of Tsavo
The Man-eaters of Tsavo is a book written by John Henry Patterson in 1907 that recounts his experiences while overseeing the construction of a railroad bridge in what would become Kenya...
(1907), which details his experiences while building a railway in Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
in 1898-99. In the 1996 film The Ghost and the Darkness
The Ghost and the Darkness
The Ghost and the Darkness is a 1996 adventure film starring Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer set in Africa at the end of the 19th century.It was directed by Stephen Hopkins and the screenplay was written by William Goldman....
, he was portrayed by actor Val Kilmer
Val Kilmer
Val Edward Kilmer is an American actor. Originally a stage actor, Kilmer became popular in the mid-1980s after a string of appearances in comedy films, starting with Top Secret! , then the cult classic Real Genius , as well as blockbuster action films, including a supporting role in Top Gun and a...
.
Youth and Army service
Patterson was born in 1867 in ForgneyForgney
Forgney is an area in County Longford associated with the poet Oliver Goldsmith. The Church of Ireland church in Forgney, the Church of St. Munis, is where the Rev. Charles Goldsmith, father of the poet, administered from 1718 to 1730....
, Ballymahon
Ballymahon
Ballymahon on the River Inny is a town in the southern part of County Longford, Ireland. It is located at the junction of the N55 National secondary road and the R392 regional road. Ballymahon derives its name from Gaelic Baile Mathuna Town of Mahon...
, County Westmeath
County Westmeath
-Economy:Westmeath has a strong agricultural economy. Initially, development occurred around the major market centres of Mullingar, Moate, and Kinnegad. Athlone developed due to its military significance, and its strategic location on the main Dublin–Galway route across the River Shannon. Mullingar...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, to a Protestant father and Roman Catholic mother. Young Patterson joined the British Army
British Army
The 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...
at the age of seventeen, rose quickly through the ranks, and eventually attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Essex Yeomanry
Essex Yeomanry
The Essex Yeomanry was a yeomanry regiment of the British Army raised in 1797. The regiment recruited volunteers from the county of Essex in the East of England.-Origins:...
, retiring from the military in 1920.
In 1898, Patterson was commissioned by the British East Africa Company to oversee the construction of a railway bridge over the Tsavo
Tsavo
Tsavo is a region of Kenya located at the crossing of the Uganda Railway over the Tsavo River, close to where it meets the Athi River. It is a KiKamba word meaning "a place of slaughter", a reference to the murderous attacks of Maasai morani on Kamba people there...
river in present-day Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
. He arrived at the site in March of that year.
Tsavo adventures
Almost immediately after his arrival, lionLion
The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
attacks began to take place on the worker population, with the lions dragging men out of their tents at night and feeding on their victims. Despite the building of thorn barriers (bomas
Boma (enclosure)
A boma is a livestock enclosure, a stockade or kind of fort, or a district government office. The term is used in many parts of eastern, central and southern Africa and is incorporated into many African languages as well as colonial varieties of English, French and German.As a livestock enclosure,...
) around the camps, bonfires at night and strict after-dark curfews, the attacks escalated dramatically, to the point where the bridge construction eventually ceased due to a fearful, mass departure of the work force. Along with the obvious financial consequences of the work stoppage, Patterson also faced the challenge of maintaining his authority and even his personal safety at this remote site against the increasingly hostile and superstitious workers, many of whom were convinced that the lions were in fact evil spirits, come to punish those who worked at Tsavo
Tsavo
Tsavo is a region of Kenya located at the crossing of the Uganda Railway over the Tsavo River, close to where it meets the Athi River. It is a KiKamba word meaning "a place of slaughter", a reference to the murderous attacks of Maasai morani on Kamba people there...
, and that he was the cause of the misfortune because the attacks had coincided with his arrival.
The man-eating behaviour was considered highly unusual for lions and was eventually confirmed to be the work of a pair of rogue males, who were believed to be responsible for as many as one hundred and forty deaths, although the actual number is still uncertain due to a lack of accurate records at the time. Railway records officially attribute only twenty-eight worker deaths to the lions, but they were also reported to have killed a significant number of local people of which no official record was ever kept.
While various theories have been put forward to account for the lions’ man-eating behaviour (poor burial practices, low populations of food source animals due to disease, etc.), it is believed the cause may have been due to dental disease. One of the lions skulls was found to have a badly abscessed canine that could have hindered normal hunting behavior, although this cause is still disputed as it only accounts for the behavior of one of the lions involved. There was also a slave trade route through the area, which contributed to the number of abandoned bodies. Patterson reported seeing considerable instances of unburied human remains and opened graves in the area, and it is believed that the lions (which, like most predators will readily scavenge for food) adapted to this abundant, accessible food supply, and eventually turned to humans as their primary food source.
With his reputation, livelihood and safety at stake, Patterson, an experienced tiger hunter from his military service in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, undertook an extensive effort to deal with the crisis and after months of attempts and near misses, he finally killed the first lion on the night of December 9th, 1898, and killed the second one on the morning of December 29th (narrowly escaping death in the process). The lions were maneless like many others in the Tsavo area and both were exceptionally large. Each lion was over nine feet long from nose to tip of tail and required eight men to carry it back to the camp.
Patterson was immediately declared a hero by the workers and local people, and word of the event quickly spread far and wide, as evidenced by the subsequent telegrams of congratulations he received. Word of the incident was even mentioned in the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
in the British Parliament, by then Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Lord Salisbury. With the man-eater threat finally eliminated, the work force returned and the Tsavo
Tsavo
Tsavo is a region of Kenya located at the crossing of the Uganda Railway over the Tsavo River, close to where it meets the Athi River. It is a KiKamba word meaning "a place of slaughter", a reference to the murderous attacks of Maasai morani on Kamba people there...
railway bridge was completed on February 7, 1899. Although the rails were later destroyed by German
German
German may refer to:* Something of, from, or related to Germany, a country in west-central Europe* The German language* as a noun, Germans, people from Germany or of German ancestry**German citizens, see demographics of Germany...
soldiers during World War I
World War I
World 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...
, the stone foundations were left standing and the bridge was subsequently repaired. Ironically, the workers, who in earlier months had all but threatened to kill him, presented Patterson with a silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
bowl in appreciation for the risks he had undertaken on their behalf, with the following inscription:
Patterson always said that he considered the bowl to be his most highly prized and hardest won trophy.
In 1907, he published his first book, The Man-eaters of Tsavo
The Man-eaters of Tsavo
The Man-eaters of Tsavo is a book written by John Henry Patterson in 1907 that recounts his experiences while overseeing the construction of a railroad bridge in what would become Kenya...
, which documented his adventures during his time there. It was the basis for three films; Bwana Devil
Bwana Devil
Bwana Devil is a 1952 drama based on the true story of the Tsavo maneaters. It was written, directed, and produced by Arch Oboler, and is considered the first color, American 3-D feature. It started the 3-D boom in the U.S. film making industry from 1952 to 1954...
(1953), Killers of Kilimanjaro (1959) and the 1996 Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount 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...
film, The Ghost and the Darkness
The Ghost and the Darkness
The Ghost and the Darkness is a 1996 adventure film starring Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer set in Africa at the end of the 19th century.It was directed by Stephen Hopkins and the screenplay was written by William Goldman....
, starring Val Kilmer
Val Kilmer
Val Edward Kilmer is an American actor. Originally a stage actor, Kilmer became popular in the mid-1980s after a string of appearances in comedy films, starting with Top Secret! , then the cult classic Real Genius , as well as blockbuster action films, including a supporting role in Top Gun and a...
(as Patterson) and Michael Douglas
Michael Douglas
Michael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...
(as the fictional character "Remington").
In 1906, Patterson returned to the Tsavo area for a hunting trip. During the trip, he shot an eland
Common Eland
The common eland , also known as the southern eland or eland antelope, is a savannah and plains antelope found in East and Southern Africa. It is the largest antelope in the African continent...
, which he noted possessed different features from elands in Southern Africa, where the species was first recognized. On returning to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Patterson had the head of the eland mounted, where it was seen by R. Lydekker, a member of the faculty of the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
. Lydekker identified Patterson's trophy as a new subspecies
Subspecies
Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...
of eland, which he named Taurotragus oryx pattersonianius.
From 1907 until 1909, Patterson was Chief Game Warden in the East Africa Protectorate
East Africa Protectorate
East 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...
, an experience he recounts in his second book, In the Grip of Nyika (1909). Unfortunately, while on a hunting safari
Safari
A safari is an overland journey, usually a trip by tourists to Africa. Traditionally, the term is used for a big-game hunt, but today the term often refers to a trip taken not for the purposes of hunting, but to observe and photograph animals and other wildlife.-Etymology:Entering the English...
with a fellow British Army officer
Officer (armed forces)
An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. Commissioned officers derive authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position...
, Corporal Audley Blyth and his wife Ethel, his reputation was tarnished by the mysterious death of Corporal Blyth due to a gunshot wound (possible suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
– exact circumstances unknown). Witnesses confirmed that Patterson was not in Blyth’s tent when the shooting took place, and that it was in fact Blyth’s wife who was with him at the time, as she was reported as running (screaming) from the tent immediately following the shooting. Patterson had Blyth buried in the wilderness and then to the surprise of everyone, insisted on continuing the expedition instead of returning to the nearest post to report the incident. Shortly afterward, Patterson returned to England with Mrs. Blyth amid rumours of murder and an affair, and although he was never officially charged or censured, this incident would follow him for years afterward, most notably in the film The Macomber Affair
The Macomber Affair
The Macomber Affair is a 1947 in filmZ1947 psychological drama set in British East Africa concerning a fatal triangle of a frustrated wife, a weak husband, and the professional hunter who comes between them. The film was distributed by United Artists, directed by Zoltan Korda, and starring by...
(1947) which was based on Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest 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...
's adaptation of the incident.
In 1924, after speaking at the Field Museum in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, Patterson agreed to sell the Tsavo lion skins and skulls to the museum for the then sizeable sum of $5,000. The lions were then reconstructed and are now on permanent display along with the original skulls. The taxidermed lions are actually smaller than their original size, presumably because the skins had been originally trimmed for use as trophy rugs in Patterson's house prior to being reconstructed for display.
Later life
Ultimately, Patterson went on to serve in the Boer WarSecond Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
and World War I
World War I
World 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...
. Although he was himself a Protestant, he became a major figure in Zionism
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
as the commander of both the Zion Mule Corps and the 38th Battalion
Battalion
A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...
of the Royal Fusiliers (aka Jewish Legion
Jewish Legion
The Jewish Legion was the name for five battalions of Jewish volunteers established as the British Army's 38th through 42nd Battalions of the Royal Fusiliers...
of the British Army
British Army
The 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 World War I, which would eventually serve as the foundation of the Israeli Defence Force decades later. During his time in command of the Jewish forces (who served with distinction in the Gallipoli
Gallipoli
The Gallipoli peninsula is located in Turkish Thrace , the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles straits to the east. Gallipoli derives its name from the Greek "Καλλίπολις" , meaning "Beautiful City"...
and Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
campaigns), Patterson was forced to deal with extensive, ongoing anti-semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
toward his men from many of his superiors (as well as peers and subordinates), and more than once threatened to resign his commission to bring the inappropriate treatment of his men under scrutiny. He retired from the British Army in 1920 as a Lieutenant-Colonel (the same rank he held when the war started) after thirty-five years of service. It is generally accepted that much of the admiration and respect of his men (and modern-day supporters) is due to the fact that he essentially sacrificed any opportunity for promotion (and his military career in general) in his efforts to ensure his men were treated fairly. His last two books, With the Zionists at Gallipoli (1916) and With the Judaeans in Palestine (1922) are based on his experiences during these times. After his military career, Patterson continued his support of Zionism as a strong advocate toward the establishment of a separate Jewish state
Jewish state
A homeland for the Jewish people was an idea that rose to the fore in the 19th century in the wake of growing anti-Semitism and Jewish assimilation. Jewish emancipation in Europe paved the way for two ideological solutions to the Jewish Question: cultural assimilation, as envisaged by Moses...
in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, which became a reality with the statehood of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
on 14 May 1948, less than a year after his death.
Patterson was close friends with many Zionist supporters and leaders, among them Vladimir Jabotinski and Benzion Netanyahu
Benzion Netanyahu
Benzion Netanyahu is an Israeli historian and a professor emeritus at Cornell University. He is a specialist in the golden age of Jewish History in Spain, and is known for his opus, the Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth Century Spain...
(father of current Israeli Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Israel
The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of the Israeli government and the most powerful political figure in Israel . The prime minister is the country's chief executive. The official residence of the prime minister, Beit Rosh Hamemshala is in Jerusalem...
Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu is the current Prime Minister of Israel. He serves also as the Chairman of the Likud Party, as a Knesset member, as the Health Minister of Israel, as the Pensioner Affairs Minister of Israel and as the Economic Strategy Minister of Israel.Netanyahu is the first and, to...
). He was also the namesake of and Godfather
Godparent
A godparent, in many denominations of Christianity, is someone who sponsors a child's baptism. A male godparent is a godfather, and a female godparent is a godmother...
to Benzion's elder son, Lieutenant-Colonel Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu, who was the commander of the elite Israeli army commando unit Sayeret Matkal
Sayeret Matkal
Sayeret Matkal is a special forces unit of the Israel Defence Forces , which is subordinated to the intelligence directorate Aman. First and foremost a field intelligence-gathering unit, conducting deep reconnaissance behind enemy lines to obtain strategic intelligence, Sayeret Matkal is also...
. Netanyahu was the only member of the Israeli force to be killed in action on July 4th, 1976 during Operation Thunderbolt
Operation Entebbe
Operation Entebbe was a counter-terrorist hostage-rescue mission carried out by the Special Forces of the Israel Defense Forces at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on 4 July 1976. A week earlier, on 27 June, an Air France plane with 248 passengers was hijacked by Palestinian and German terrorists and...
at Entebbe
Entebbe
Entebbe is a major town in Central Uganda. Located on a Lake Victoria peninsula, the town was at one time, the seat of government for the Protectorate of Uganda, prior to Independence in 1962...
airport in Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, during which 103 (of 107) Israeli hostages were rescued from Palestinian
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
hijackers
Aircraft hijacking
Aircraft hijacking is the unlawful seizure of an aircraft by an individual or a group. In most cases, the pilot is forced to fly according to the orders of the hijackers. Occasionally, however, the hijackers have flown the aircraft themselves, such as the September 11 attacks of 2001...
who had diverted an Air France
Air France
Air France , stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the French flag carrier headquartered in Tremblay-en-France, , and is one of the world's largest airlines. It is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global airline alliance...
passenger jet to the airport one week earlier. He was fatally wounded during the firefight with Ugandan Dictator
Dictator
A dictator is a ruler who assumes sole and absolute power but without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship...
Idi Amin
Idi Amin
Idi Amin Dada was a military leader and President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. Amin joined the British colonial regiment, the King's African Rifles in 1946. Eventually he held the rank of Major General in the post-colonial Ugandan Army and became its Commander before seizing power in the military...
's soldiers at the airport, who were supporting the hijackers. The operation is often referred to as Operation Yonatan
Operation Yonatan
Operation Yonatan can refer to:*Operation Entebbe, also known as Operation Yonatan, a military operation*Mivtsa Yonatan, an Israeli film from 1977 based on Operation Entebbe...
in his honor.
During the 1940s, Patterson and his wife, Frances ("Francie") Helena, lived in a modest home in La Jolla, California. Eventually, with his wife in need of regular medical care and his own health in decline, he took up residence at the home of his friend Marion Travis in Bel Air, California, where he eventually died in his sleep at seventy-nine years of age. His wife would pass away six weeks later in a San Diego nursing home. Both Patterson and his wife were cremated, and their ashes were interred at Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery, niche 952-OC in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los 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...
.
According to Patterson's grandson, Alan Patterson (his only known living descendant), one of his grandfather's final wishes was that both he and his wife eventually be interred in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, ideally, with the men he commanded during World War I
World War I
World 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...
. The Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation (JASHP), Alan Patterson, Canadian representation and Beit Hagdudim have undertaken a coordinated effort to honor this request. As of November 2011, this effort is still ongoing (this section will be updated with details when plans for reinterment have been confirmed).
See also
- Tsavo maneatersTsavo maneatersThe Tsavo Man-Eaters were a pair of notorious man-eating lions responsible for the deaths of a number of construction workers on the Kenya-Uganda Railway, from March through December 1898.-History:...
- The Man-eaters of TsavoThe Man-eaters of TsavoThe Man-eaters of Tsavo is a book written by John Henry Patterson in 1907 that recounts his experiences while overseeing the construction of a railroad bridge in what would become Kenya...
- ZionismZionismZionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
- LionLionThe lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
- The Man-Eaters of Tsavo, by J. H. Patterson. (WikisourceWikisourceWikisource is an online digital library of free content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Its aims are to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, it has...
)
Works
- The Man-eaters of Tsavo and Other East African Adventures London: Macmillan and Co.Macmillan PublishersMacmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...
, 1907 - In the Grip of the Nyika; Further Adventures in British East Africa London: Macmillan and Co., 1909
- With the Zionists in Gallipoli London: HutchinsonHutchinson (publisher)Hutchinson & Co. was an English book publisher, founded in 1887. The company merged with Century Publishing in 1985 to form Century Hutchinson, and was folded into the British Random House Group in 1989, where it remains as an imprint in the Cornerstone Publishing division...
, 1916 - With the Judaeans in the Palestine Campaign London: HutchinsonHutchinson (publisher)Hutchinson & Co. was an English book publisher, founded in 1887. The company merged with Century Publishing in 1985 to form Century Hutchinson, and was folded into the British Random House Group in 1989, where it remains as an imprint in the Cornerstone Publishing division...
, 1922