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Hesketh Vernon Hesketh-Prichard, DSO, born November 17, 1876, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, India. Died June 14, 1922, Gorhambury, Hertfordshire. A British Army Major, he was also a writer, champion cricketer and renowned big game hunter. When World War I started, Hesketh-Prichard had volunteered for military service, but his application was declined at first because of his age -- he was 38. By serving as an escort for war correspondents, Hesketh-Prichard was able to make it to the front. Soon, he observed the disparity in sniper skills between the two sides. In his 1920 book, Sniping in France, he described the situation:

"At this time the skill of the German sniper had become a byword, and in the early days of trench warfare brave German riflemen used to lie between the lines, sending their bullets through the head of any officer or man who dared to look over our parapet. These Germans, who were often forest guards, and sometimes battle police, did their business with a skill and gallentry which must be freely acknowledged. From the ruined house or the field of decaying roots, sometimes resting their rifles on the bodies of the dead, they sent forth a plague of headshot wounds into the British line. Their marks were small, but when they hit they usually killed their man, and the hardiest soldier turned sick when he saw the effort of the pointed German bullet, which was apt to keyhole that the little hole in the forehead where it entered often became a huge tear, the size of a man's fist, on the other side of the stricken man's head."

Hesketh-Prichard went to France in May 1915 and was dimayed at winessing the severe gruelling being inflicted on the British by German snipers. As a result of these initial experiences Hesketh-Prichard became a pioneer of sniping in the British Army. In his book, Sniping in France, he says: "It is difficult now to give exact figures of our losses. Suffice to say that in early 1915 we lost eighteen men in a single battalion in a single day of enemy snipers." Losses of this scale swiftly drained the lifeblood out of a battalion. The damage done was more than material, as morale suffered in proportion to the level of enemy domination.

The Sniper at War: From the American Revolutionary War to the Present Day, by Michael E. Haskew Hesketh-Prichard battled not only the Germans, but the rigidity of the British high command as well. He was eventually named sniping officer of the 4th Division and in 1915 established the First Army Sniping. Observation and Scouting (SOS) School near the French town of Bethune. A 17-day course of study included the care and maintenance of the rifle, proper sighting, the use of camouflage, and map reading. Soon, a second school began operating. That same year, formal battalion sniper organizations emerged in the British Army. The included 16 trained riflemen and at least two NCOs.

British Sniper Corps The trainees were taught to work in pairs, switching the roles of sniper and observer periodically to maximize effectiveness, since fatigue could easily set in after a short period of viewing enemy trenches through magnification.

The Lovat Scouts, a 200-man unit whose ranks consisted of many experienced Scottish hunters and game wardens, or 'guillies', directed much of the initial training of the fledgeling British sniper corps. Pioneers of modern fieldcraft, the Lovat Scouts emphasized the elements of stealth, of which camouflage was an important component. They introduced the ghillie suit, the combination of a long robe, a hood or veil, and attached concealing vegetation, which they had employed on highland estates to stalk game and arrest poachers. Major F. M. Crum also made significant contributions to early British sniper training.

Cricket http://content-www.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/14172.html Major teams Hampshire, London County Batting and fielding averages Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct St First-class 86 135 38 724 37 7.46 0 0 44 0

Bowling averages Mat Runs Wkts BBI Ave 5 10 First-class 86 7586 339 8/32 22.37 25 5

Career statistics 

First-class span 1900 - 1913

Sniper The Modern Scout

In all previous wars, the scouts and patrols have had their own special place. In this, the greatest of all wars, although there was much scouting done – far more than in any previous war – yet in many respects it was of so different a nature that a new era in these practices may fairly be said to have set in.

In former wars, the individual scout had far more chance. In the Boer War, for instance, Major F R Burnham, DSO, an American who held a commission in the British Army, made a wonderful name for himself, as did Dan Theron on the Boer side.

First and list, I suppose that Burnham was the greatest scout of our time. Physically a small man, he was amazingly well knit, and very strong, and his many feats of hardihood owed much to his compact and untiring build. His name will live on account of two feats – the first, his passing through the entire Matabele Army and shooting the M’limo, the witch doctor, who was responsible for the Matabele War; and the second, his dash through the Boer lines, when he blew up the railway on the far side of Pretoria.

The first article of Burnham’s faith was absolute physical fitness, and his idea of physical fitness was much more rigorous than that of most athletes. It was not with him a matter of merely keeping his muscles of speed and endurance in good fettle, but – what is a much harder thing – of keeping of all his senses at their highest pitch of efficiency. Thus, apart from his hearing, and eyesight, which were very keen, I have never met anyone else, except one Indian, who possessed anything like his sense of smell. He could smell a small fire in the open at an extraordinary distance, and he told me that this power had often been of greatest value to him.

But Burnham was essentially, as a scout, the product of what may be called a savage, or extra-European War, and in this war there was no one on either side who had anything like the same opportunities of hand-to-hand work. Whereas it would perhaps be too much to say that the day of Burnham has passed forever, yet it is true enough that a new generation of scouts has arisen, whose work, or much of it, has been of a very different nature. In open or semi-open warfare a scout may still be ordered to go by day or night, and find out if this or that village is occupied by the enemy, but once trench warfare sets in, and the battle fronts of the opposing armies stretch from the sea to Switzerland, the work of the scout undergoes great changes. His theatre of action is No Man’s Land, which comprises all of the area between the two armies, which are drawn up one against the other.

The Corps Commander of the 11th Corps, Sir R Haking, would never allow the use of the word “No Man’s Land.” “There is no such place opposite my Corps,” he would say, “All the land right up to the edge of the enemy’s parapet is our land, and we have got to have control of it.”