James Percy FitzPatrick

Sir James Percy FitzPatrick, (24 July 1862 – 24 January 1931), known as Percy FitzPatrick, was a South African author, politician, mining financier and pioneer of the fruit industry. He authored the classic children's book, Jock of the Bushveld. As a politician, he defended British Imperial interests before and during the Anglo-Boer War. FitzPatrick is responsible for the creation of the two-minute silence observed on Armistice Day.

Early life Percy FitzPatrick was born in King William's Town, the eldest son of James Coleman FitzPatrick, who was a judge of the Supreme Court of the Cape Colony, and Jenny FitzGerald. Both were originally from Ireland. Two of James Coleman FitzPatrick's other sons were killed in action – Thomas in the Matabele Rebellion and George in the Second Anglo-Boer War (serving on the British side with the Imperial Light Horse Regiment).

Education James Percy FitzPatrick was first educated at Downside School near Bath, Somerset, and later at St. Aidan's College in Grahamstown.

Career

After his father's death in 1880, James Peter FitzPatrick (later self-selected Percy) left college to support his mother and her family. After working for some time as a clerk in Cape Town's Standard Bank, he travelled to the Eastern Transvaal goldfields in 1884, where he worked as a storeman, prospector's assistant and journalist as well as an ox-wagon transport-rider from the former Lourenço Marques to Lydenburg and Barberton. He later became editor of the Gold Fields News in Barberton. An account of FitzPatrick's adventures during this time, Jock of the Bushveld, was published in 1907.

He also authored The Transvaal from Within, which greatly influenced public opinion in Great Britain in the years leading up to the Anglo-Boer War. It emphasised the grievances of mainly English-speaking Uitlander against the Boer government and advocated British intervention in the South African Republic (ZAR).

In 1892, FitzPatrick became the head of intelligence in the Johannesburg offices of Hermann Eckstein and Company (part of Wernher-Beit and Company). and later appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (KCMG).

FitzPatrick kept wild animals that he brought back to Johannesburg after hunting trips at what now is Zoo Lake. Some of these animals formed the first stock of the Johannesburg Zoo. He also helped establish citrus farming in South Africa. Dear Sir Percy, The King, who learns that you are shortly to leave for South Africa, desires me to assure you that he ever gratefully remembers that the idea of the Two Minute Pause on Armistice Day was due to your initiation, a suggestion readily adopted and carried out with heartfelt sympathy throughout the Empire. Signed Stamfordham

Family FitzPatrick married Elizabeth Lilian Cubitt (1870-1923) in 1886. They had four children: Percy (1889-1917), Alan (1894-1928), Oliver (1897-1927) and Cecily (1899-1992). Their eldest son, Major Percy Nugent FitzPatrick, was killed on 14 December 1917 in Beaumetz during World War I. The gravestone inscription for Percy highlights his voluntary service at the outbreak of the war (initially with the Johannesburg Light Horse Regiment): "VOLUNTEERED 4 AUGUST 1914 TROOPER, IMPERIAL LIGHT HORSE SOUTH AFRICA". By the time of his death, Percy was serving with the South African Heavy Artillery.

Death and legacy Sir James Percy FitzPatrick died in Amanzi, Uitenhage, Union of South Africa in 1931, aged 68, from undisclosed causes. He was buried at "The Look Out" , north of Uitenhage. The site has views of the Sundays River Valley below.

The Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology was founded at the University of Cape Town in 1959 by Mrs. Cecily K. Niven, daughter and only surviving child of Percy FitzPatrick, for the study of the living birds of Africa. The Percy FitzPatrick Award is an award for the best South African children's book in English and was initiated in 1970.

Publications Through Mashonaland with Pick and Pen (based on Randolph Churchill's 1891 Rhodesian expedition, led by FitzPatrick) , 1899 Jock of the Bushveld (based on FitzPatrick's transport riding days, was first published in 1907 upon persuasion by his friend Rudyard Kipling. The book has so far run through 91 editions and impressions) South African Memories (published posthumously)