Document Request: The Papers of H E Crocker
Document Description: Set of papers found on sale in the Between The Covers bookshop in the USA
Transcription URL: https://richardson.surnametree.com/library/vdocs/D_305#305
Document Transcription:Description of the Papers of Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Edmund Crocker as given by the BetweenTheCovers Shop (USA) in 2021.
An archive of typescript works by the author, renowned hunter, and British soldier Lieutenant Colonel H.E. Crocker. A substantial lot of documents neatly organized in five folders including a 500 page typed manuscript, 56 page typed manuscript of *The Hoghunter's Annual Volume II*, 31 typed manuscripts essays, letters from editors, and agendas for organizations he was involved in. Very good with some small chips and tears and age-toning. The papers mirror Crocker's career and feature his game hunting and travel accounts, some of which were printed as articles, and others which remain unpublished, many of which were intended to be released collectively as a yet unpublished book. These largely recollect his experiences in Rhodesia, Tanganyika, the Congo, and Nigeria, as well as recounting his game hunting adventures around the world, including Australia, India, and Africa, and finally, his post-war interest in international affairs. One of the folders contains a 500-plus page unpublished book manuscript titled, *Africa from Within* written by Crocker circa 1960-1962. Some of his hunting adventures were previously published in poetic form, in a 1930s sport hunting magazine called *The Field: Hoghunter's Annual.* Other articles pertaining to Africa were published in the *Army Quarterly Magazine.* Some of the accounts and observations described within the archive were not published and according to the preface leaf, the writer was intending to put the latter together as a complete and detailed illustrated book. It seems that he was working with an editor at the time of Crocker's death, and fate would be such that the book was not published due to his untimely passing.
A comprehensive autobiographical archive, Lieutenant-Colonel Crocker kept numerous well written recollections of his hunting expeditions in Africa, some of his prizes including lions in Tanganyika, a black rhinoceros in East Africa, hippopotamus and elephant hunting in the Belgian Congo, and duck on the Zambesi. He further mentions meeting Sir Julian Huxley, secretary of the Zoological Society of London and founding member of the World Wildlife Fund. Chasing the thrill of a good hunt elsewhere around the world, he pursues wild boar and jackals in Cawnpore and the Kadir plains of India, but deems Queensland, Australia to be the "hoghunter's paradise." He also describes crocodile hunting in the great Down Under. A captivating account describes a hunt for black partridge near Baghdad, Iraq, during his service in the Mesopotamia Campaign. In Germany, he partook in a "pig-sticking festival," his account digressing into the event's ancient tradition and exuberant female participants.
Closer to home, in Scotland's Highland locks and rivers, in east Central Ireland, and in Hertfordshire in England, he takes up fly fishing. Crocker also takes an interest in the unique tribes dispersed across the African continent, making note of both lively and somber customs as he travels. He describes and contemplates without bias subjects such as cannibalism among the leopard society, superstition and witchcraft, juju and amulets and venerated objects, lycanthropy, serpent totems for worship, male initiation rites and excessive whipping, ancient dugouts in Rhodesia once believed to be slave pits, rain dances and festivities, marriage customs, tribal dress, communications and industry, as well as, the discovery of the bronze head and other copper alloy sculptures in 1938 at Ife, in Nigeria.
Not simply an observer, Crocker was a member of the Conservative Commonwealth Council for East and Central Africa, among other groups, and according to meeting minutes herein, was involved in the rehabilitation of the Mau Mau during the 1950s uprisings, in hopes of improving living standards and conditions. Shortly after World War II he reported on a munitions area in East Africa. The archive also details Crocker's travels to other countries with the British Army and on his own accord. In a signed firsthand witness account Crocker describes a fire walking ceremony in Benares. He also possessed a keen interest in global advancement and world events, rendering here numerous unpublished expositions and personal observations of politics, education, industrialization, and campaigns of war, starting with his own participation in the Fall of Baghdad in 1917 with the Thirteenth Division under General Maude. A 14-page account of the Northern States of India deals with border disputes, Chinese claims, and railways in Nepal, Kashmir-Tibet, Assam. Also pertaining to India he discusses the announcement of an important Russian steel plant, Bhilai Steel Plant, located in Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, which in 1955 became India's first and main producer of steel rails. Education is his area of focus in Pakistan. A seventeen page report examines the reformation of Taiwan during the 1950s under KMT (Chinese Nationalist Party) rule, including the highly successful land reform program, mining exports, freedom of speech, and social conditions according to a Saigon civilian.
Lieutenant-Colonel Herbert Crocker (1877-1962) obtained a commission as Lieutenant in the Essex Regiment in 1900, and served in the Second Boer War. After sustaining an injury during his regimental service in Belfast, South Africa, in 1901 he was seconded to the North Nigerian Regiment, remaining at this post until the end of the war. During the First World War, Crocker commanded the 13th Signal Company at Gallipolo, where he was wounded. He was appointed second-in-command of the 8th Battalion, Chinese Regiment, which arrived in Mesopotamia in late February 1916, and became battalion commander during the capture of Hai Salient on 15 February 1917, retaining this position until the end of the war. Crocker retired from the army in 1929 after some years in India, and subsequently decided to travel, hunt, and write, exploring extensively in Africa with his wife. He died on 13 May 1962.
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