Heroes, wolves and scallywags

With conflict raging again in eastern Europe, we might do well to reflect on the tremendous contribution made to the defence of these islands by those involved in fieldsports. It may seem obvious that those practised in deerstalking or gamekeeping might make an ideal irregular military force, but it was not until the Boer War that such a body came into existence.

British officers were faced with the Boer commandos, a skilled mounted enemy who would snipe with great accuracy from extreme range into massed ranks of our soldiers, before melting away into the veldt. This force of Boer farmers had no intention of fighting a conventional war and inflicted grave casualties on the British forces. Something had to be done and tactics changed.

The brainchild of Simon Fraser, 14th Lord Lovat, Lovat’s Scouts came into