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http://www.frontiersmen.org.au/cushny.htmAchievements in Many Lands

By Major (LF) Tom Cushny, LMSM

It was in South Africa that the Legion of Frontiersmen was first conceived by Roger Pocock whilst serving as a captain with the famous Waldron Scouts during theAnglo-Boer War of 1899- 1902.

It was Pocock's experiences as a Mountie in the frozen North-West of Canada, aswell as those in the red-skin rebellion of 1880, combined with those in the BoerWar, that led him to thinking of the idea of forming a chain of 'Listening Posts'. These Listening Posts would be not only across the frontiers of the BritishEmpire but, indeed, throughout the world.

At the turn of the century it was often necessary to ride hell for leather for days and often nights in order to get to the nearest telegraph station before being able to send vital information to the nearest military garrison. Thus in 1904, Capt Pocock founded the Legion of Frontiersmen in London.

Applications poured in from every point of the compass, and amongst these were:

Sir Ernest Shackleton explorer and leader of the 1914-16 Antarctic expeditio

n in which his ship was crushed in the ice packs; Joseph Conrad who saw service in the Boer War and was the author of some ofthe world's most famous sea-faring adventure stories; Patrick Hastings who also served in the Boer War and was later to become oneof the greatest criminal lawyers of all time, living to receive the accolade ofKnighthood from the hands of the King Capt Frederick Courtney Selous, big game hunter and naturalist, Chief Intelligence Officer to the column organised By Cecil John Rhodes to defeat the Matabele King, Lobengula, and annex Matabeleland; (Rider Haggard of Zululand, though not a Frontiersman, had modeled Allan Quartermain on Selous), Capt Robert Falcon Scott, RN, of South Pole fame who, after reaching the Pole, perished with his party during a blizzard. With them was Capt Oates, also a Frontiersman, who died that the others might have a better chance to live.

Dan Driscoll, known in the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 as the 'King of the Scouts' who founded and commanded the corps of irregulars Driscoll's Scouts, andlater became Commandant General of the Legion in World War I; William le Queux: best selling novelist of the 1920s; Lord Baden-Powell who, as a colonel, had commanded the relief force that hadcome up from Bechuanaland to relieve the laager at Bulawayo during the MatabeleRebellion of 1896 and later, the hero of Mafeking. Another was Capt Cherry Kearton, big game hunter and greatest photographer of wild life as well as being amongst the first. He too, saw service in the Anglo-Boer War. Amongst other illustrious personages on the roll of the Legion were Lord Roberts, General French, General Alfred Turner, Lord Kitchener and many others toonumerous to mention. All had seen active military service in Africa.

By 1906 Capt Pocock's dream had indeed materialized - the Legion of Frontiersmenwas a reality.