Bloody-Minded Pigott (ePub)

Bloody-Minded Pigott is the biography of Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Berkeley Pigott, who chalked up more battle experience and hair-raising exploits than most of his contemporaries. Pigott was a young army officer with limited private means so was fortunate to serve in a string of military campaigns from his commission at the outbreak of the Zulu War in 1879 until 1885, when he was promoted to brevet major. He was in the Mounted Infantry in South Africa, Egypt and the Sudan and played a key role in the 1885 Battle of Abu Klea. Though overlooked for a Victoria Cross in 1881, he was awarded a Distinguished Service Order (DSO) Award in 1888 for his service with the Yoni Expedition in Sierra Leone. Pigott also spent six years in India and escaped the tedium of garrison life first by hunting and capturing elephants for the Maharajah of Mysore, then serving as the commandant of Wellington Depot. As one of General Viscount Wolseley's protgs he was seconded to serve in the 1896 Ashanti Expedition and then as British Resident at Kumasi. Nicknamed 'bloody-minded' for disagreeing with the decision of his superior officers, this was a character trait that would ultimately cost Pigott dearly. Bloody Minded Pigott uses previously unpublished material to add fresh detail even to well researched topics such as the 1st Anglo-Boer War and the Nile Expedition and also provides some insight into the role of administrators of fledgling British colonies.