LT.COLONEL JOHN HENRY PATTERSON – A HERO OF ZIONISM- IS LAID TO REST IN ISRAEL- HIS GRANDSON’S WORDS
David Isaac is director and pubisher of Zionism-101- a comprehensive and indispensable series on the history of Jews in Palestine and early Zionism. Zionism 101www.zionism101.org
He received the following note and speech from the grandson of Lt.Colonel John Henry Patterson
Dear Mr. Isaacs:
Perhaps you would be interested in the short attached “speech” that I delivered at the reinternment ceremony of my grandfather last month in Moshav Avichaiyil. By the way, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed your Herzl productions. Sincerely, Alan Patterson
“Thank you for that kind introduction. And my thanks to all those who have made today’s event possible – Prime Minister Netanyahu, son of my grandfather’s close colleague, Ben Zion Netanyahu, whose office coordinated things at the national and international level, and Ezequiel Sivak of Moshav Avichayil, who has wonderfully led activities here at the local level.
It would be possible for me to talk extensively about my grandfather, Lt Col John Henry Patterson. Perhaps knowing that, the event organizers have asked me to speak briefly, and to enforce that request they have required me to actually write out my words so that they can be translated. A very effective ploy.
It has been many years since my mother mentioned to me that it had been one of JHP’s wishes that he be buried with his soldiers in Israel. I learned of this some 50 years after his cremation and disposition in a dreary cemetery building in Los Angeles, California. And for quite a few years the idea lingered at the back of my mind without anything to move me to attempt to fulfill that wish. And then when I began to consider how to accomplish it, and all the difficulties and bureacratic steps involved, I felt that his reburial might well be a case of “next year in Avichayil.” Happily we are here together this year in Avichayil and the Colonel, together with my grandmother, Francie, are now resting under the bright sky and fresh air of Israel, freed from their dusty corner of Rosemont Cemetery.
How this came to pass has relied on two people who you probably never have heard of, William Goldman and Jerry Klinger. Jerry is head of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, a US non governmental organization dedicated to helping record and memorialize Jews and their history around the world. In an afterword to a bibliography of JHP, I wrote that one of the tasks ahead of me at that time was the reinternment of my grandparents. Jerry contacted me as soon as he read that and offered his services. At first I was reluctant to accept, feeling that this was something that I needed to do personally. Pondering all the bureaucratic work involved in both Israel and the US, with consideration I decided that Jerry’s offer was too good to turn down. And here we are.
But to better understand the long gestation period of today’s activities, first we need to examine the role of Mr. Goldman, a Hollywood screenwriter. Sitting around a campfire one evening in Kenya many years ago, he heard the tale of my grandfather and his quest to kill the man-eating lions who were seriously delaying his task of building a bridge over the Tsavo River as part of the Mombasa to Uganda railway. Completion of the quest took almost a year and the loss of life to the lions of many dozens of men, both contracted Indian as well as Kenyan workers.
Being a screenwriter, Goldman felt that this would make an exciting movie and proceeded to write a first draft script that he then proceeded to “shop” around Hollywood studios. In the way of the movie industry the time between initial draft and completed product was significantly more than a few years, but finally “The Ghost and the Darkness” appeared in 1996. After viewing the movie (actually not too bad as Hollywood extravaganzas go) I was motivated to try to learn more about my grandfather. This involved various trips to Ireland, England, and one to Israel a dozen years ago. There is much still to be learned about JHP, who was in many ways a secretive man. Much of what I did learn appears in the biography “afterword” previously mentioned.
When I started my research on JHP, I wondered if he was anything more than an interesting footnote to history. In my previous visit to Israel I had the good fortune to meet with Shmuel Katz, the writer and biographer of JHP’s close friend and colleague, Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Shmuel stated that if it hadn’t been for my grandfather, there would have been no IDF. I thought at the time, and still do, that this was somewhat of an exaggeration. Nonetheless, there is a clear line between the Jewish Legion and Brigade of WWI and WWII and the subsequent development of the IDF, and I am sure he would be very proud of that.
It is ironic that while he is well known for two very different reasons — his zionism, and his various exploits, adventures and travails in East Africa — few people who know of one also know of the other. In my research I did find one connection. Most of you know that long before the establishment of Israel as a nation, zionist supporters and philanthropists considered and sometimes funded relocation projects in various other countries. The famous jewish gauchos of Argentina resulted from one such effort.
Africa too was considered and a few years before WWI a small zionist delegation went to Kenya, then very undeveloped. One night out in the countryside, sitting outside their tents around a campfire, they heard lions roaring in the bush. They asked what those sounds were and as explanation, their guide proceeded to tell them the story of JHP’s saga with the man-eating lions of Tsavo. The delegation arose very early the next morning, folded up the tents and made for their ship home as fast as possible, with Africa completely removed from their list of possible sites. And among other reasons, that is why we are meeting today, not in Nairobi, but here in Avichayil.
Thank you.
Dec. 4, 2013, Avichayil, Israel
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