| Hole | H M | | Lieutenant and Adjutant | BSACM Rhodesia 1896 (0). Hugh Marshall Hole was born in Tiverton, Devon in May 1865 and was educated at Blundell's School and Balliol College, Oxford. Having then failed to gain entry to the Chinese Consular Service, he sailed for South Africa, where, in 1889, he found employment in a Kimberley law firm. As it transpired, the same firm represented Cecil Rhodes and Dr. Leander Jameson, and, in the following year, on gaining their confidence, he became the first member of clerical staff to be appointed to the newly formed British South Africa Company. Moving from the Cape to the company's Mashonaland office in Salisbury in 1891, he was appointed Private Secretary to Jameson, while in 1893 he achieved another first when he became a Civil Commissioner and Justice of the Peace for Salisbury District. However, on news of the Matabele raid on Victoria in July of the latter year, Jameson refused Hole permission to accompany the Mashonaland Horse, of which he was a member, instead insisting that he remain in Salisbury as Magistrate. But as Hole would later recall in his unpublished memoirs, this latter post actually led to his own chapter of active service:'Then came the Wilson disaster at Shangani. Just before Christmas 1893, the natives in Lomagunda District became troublesome, and had a fracas with some white men, in which one - Arthur Stanford - was fatally wounded. As Magistrate I was sent out to investigate, and in view of the disturbed condition of the country a detachment of 25 men, under Lieutenant Randolph Nesbitt (Now Major Nesbitt, V. C. ), with a maxim gun, was sent as my escort. The wet season was on, and the country was in a fearful condition. I outstripped my escort and had finished my enquiry - including the dying deposition of young Stanford - before they joined me.We were returning when we got information of the Shangani fight, and orders to proceed towards the Zambesi, in which direction it was thought that King Lobengula was fleeing with Wilson in pursuit. Nesbitt and I picked out 10 or 12 of the best mounted men in the escort and turned back. We spent many days in fruitless search, and among the Lomagunda natives, all of whom were panicky, and who gave us a lot of false information to get rid of us. The weather was awful, and for two weeks we could get nothing but kaffir food, and marched through, and slept, in mud. We had to swim rivers. Eventually, I got back to Salisbury, after three weeks of the roughest experience I have ever endured. I left on Christmas Eve and returned on 17 January. I gained nothing except a bad dose of fever; but I made a life-long chum in Randolph Nesbitt.’Following his experiences in the troubles of 1893, and a period back in the U. K. to recover from his fever, Hole remained actively employed in Salisbury in the period leading up to, and including, the ill-fated Jameson Raid of December 1895, a period about which, as a result of his first hand knowledge, he later wrote his much acclaimed history - as he put it in his private memoirs, 'Rhodes was constantly in and out of our offices, and Jameson was there in the intervals between his rapid trips to the North.’ It was, however, in the following year, that he himself officially witnessed military service, for in March 1896, on the outbreak of rebellion, he attested for the Salisbury Field Force (S. F. F. ):'On the outbreak of the rebellion, I was at once promoted from Trooper to Lieutenant in the Rhodesia Horse, and shortly afterwards, when the Salisbury Field Force was formed, I was made Adjutant of the left wing. I took part in a good many patrols at the outset and had my first experience of being under fire.I remember one little expedition in which Colonel Alderson, my wife Ethel (mounted on one of his horses), the Judge and I went to visit some rebel villages about eight miles out.Alderson's action in allowing a lady to go beyond the town limits were severely criticised in the local press!'Following further leave back in England, Hole was appointed Secretary of the company's offices in Bulawayo in 1898, while in August of the following year he joined the newly formed Southern Rhodesia Volunteers (S. R. V. ). And with the advent of hostilities a few weeks later, he departed with two S. R. V. squadrons and some B. S. A. P. to the Bechuanaland line to guard the border. Struck down by dysentery at the end of the year, he was invalided back to Bulawayo, but afterwards served as a Transport Officer for Carrington's Field Force (The Bushmen Corps), before returning to civilian employ as Government Secretary for Matabeleland in the course of 1900. Residing in Bulawayo, it was his responsibility to find a way around the great currency shortage then being experienced as a result of the war. Holding large stocks of postage stamps, he introduced his now famous Money Cards, bearing on one side his signature and the stamp of the Administrator's Office, and on the other side a B. S. A. postage stamp of varying denominations - sold with this lot is an original example of a one shilling card. Another of his duties in the Boer War was to administer native labour, and to that end he was invited to carry out talks with the new Transvaal Government at Johannesburg, in order to establish a mutual arrangement for recruitment:'Johannesburg was in military occupation and the war was at its height. At Wolve Hoek we were held up in the train for some hours, and were eye-witness of a big drive intended to round up General de Wet, but although a large number of Boers were captured, de Wet was not among them. Lord Kitchener was there and seemed much annoyed. Our journey to and from Johannesburg took a fearful time owing to the numerous stoppages and delays due to military operations. At one time near Mafeking, our train was shelled by Boers but they were turned by fire from the armoured train which escorted us.’In April 1901, at Kimberley, Hole had one of his last meetings with Cecil Rhodes:'I was a good deal shocked at his appearance, which had altered for the worse since I had last seen him, shortly after the relief of Mafeking. Dr. Jameson was staying with him and also General Pretyman. I had some long talks with Rhodes, about the native labour question in Rhodesia mainly. We played bridge every evening and I lost £5 to Rhodes, at which he was greatly pleased, though it didn't amuse me so much!'Rhodes died in early 1902, following Hole's trip to Aden, at Rhodes' behest, in order to bring back 200 Arab coolies:'I was placed in charge of the arrangements for the national funeral in the Matopo Hills, and had a good deal of responsibility. For this duty I received the thanks of the Administrator, the Chartered Company and the Rhodes Trustees.’Returning to the U. K. on leave, Hole was offered a place in the Rhodesian Coronation Contingent:'At once I went to the Colonial Camp at Alexandra Palace. The Contingent was composed of the B. S. A. P. and the same number of my own regiment, the Southern Rhodesia Volunteers, all under Major Straker of the Police. I took part in the Coronation of Edward VII and got the Medal.’Back in Rhodesia, he served as Administrator of the North-Western District 1903-04, in which period he made the 'most interesting journey of my life, by canoe, up the Zambesi to visit King Lewanika in Barotseland', and, following service back in Bulawayo and Salisbury, as representative of a special labour mission to Nyasaland in 1909, a successful expedition but one which 'closed with a shipwreck at the mouth of the Zambesi and a sojourn of three days on a spit of sand!' A similar mission in 1911 ended in failure, largely due to the 'uncompromising attitude' of the new Governor, Sir William Manning. By the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, Hole was serving on a Colonial Office Commission to investigate the question of Native Reserves in Southern Rhodesia, but he returned to the U. K. at the end of the year and was appointed a Brigade Major of a Territorial Brigade on home duty. Service in the 4th Norfolks followed, as did work as a Draft Conducting Officer and as a Staff Officer in command of quartering in East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, latterly in the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. With the ending of hostilities, he rejoined the British South Africa Company at head office in London, where, in 1924, he became Managing Secretary with a seat on the Executive Council, and was created a C. M. G. ,'for service in the London Office of the British South Africa Company' (London Gazette 1 January 1924 refers). He finally retired in 1928, in which year he embarked proper on his career as an author, being uniquely qualified to write about his chosen subjects from personal experience. He died in London in May 1941. CMG; BSACM Rhodesia 1896 (Lieut. & Adjt. , 5. FF. ); QSA, 1 clasp, Rhodesia (Lieut. , S. Rhoda. Vol. ); CORONATION 1902, silver. DNW December 1991 £1100. DNW March 2008 £6000.
Source: BSACM rolls | Salisbury Field Force |
| Hole | Hugh Marshall | | Lieutenant | Hugh Marshall Hole studied law at Balliol College, Oxford before emigrating to South Africa and, while working for a firm of solicitors in Kimberley in 1899, met Cecil John Rhodes. He joined the British South Africa Company in 1890 and in 1891 moved to Mashonaland where he became private secretary to Dr Leander Starr Jameson, the Administrator, a post he held for three years. Afterwards he served as Civil Commissioner at both Salisbury and Bulawayo, took an active part in the fighting during the Mashona rebellion, but was obliged to retire later in the year because of ill health. He returned to Matabeleland in 1898, held a number of administrative positions, later served in the Boer War with the Southern Rhodesia Volunteers and, later still, in the Great War. After the war he resumed service with the BSA Company, in London, eventually becoming Managing Secretary from 1924 until 1928. He was made CMG in 1924 and retired to England in 1928. A first class historian and a cultured man of varied interests, he achieved wide recognition as an author. Among his better known books are 'The Jameson Raid', 'Rhodesia Days' and 'The Making of Rhodesia' all of which he was uniquely qualified to write about from personal experience. Residing in Bulawayo early in 1900 it was Marshall Hole's responsibility to find a way around the great currency shortage then being experienced as a result of the war. Holding large stocks of postage stamps, he introduced his Money Cards bearing on one side his signature and the stamp of the Administrators Office, and on the other side a BSA Company postage stamp of varying denominations. CMG (n/b), BSACM reverse Rhodesia 1896 (Lieut & Adjt, 5. FF), QSA (1) Rhod (Lieut, SRV), 1902 Coronation. DNW Dec 91 £1,100. | Southern Rhodesian Volunteers |
