Harry Wolhuter And The Lions: A Tale Of Tooth And Claw

His encounter with two lions while on duty as a game ranger made Harry Wolhuter a celebrity throughout the British Empire and elsewhere.

- Graham Jooste

Shortly before the South African War (1899-1902), President Paul Kruger proclaimed the establishment of a ‘Government Wildlife Park’ in the Eastern Transvaal. This piece of land marked the beginning of what would later become the Sabi Game Reserve. In 1902, Colonel James StevensonHamilton, ex British Army, was appointed the first warden.

He looked across his desk at the recruit standing in front of him. Harry Wolhuter was in his 20s at the time, tall, lean, and suntanned. Hanging from his belt was a long knife in a sheath.

He was a veteran of the war and had served with Steinaecker’s Horse. An irregular mounted unit raised by the British, it had done duty along the Eastern Transvaal border with Mozambique during the conflict.

Wolhuter was 13 when his parents left Beaufort West, where he was born. They made for Legogote in the Eastern Transvaal, but the young Wolhuter remained behind at Maraisburg and worked in a trading store. He later moved to Johannesburg, where he was employed in a bar and billiards saloon. However, he hankered for the open veld. With his savings he bought a good horse and rifle and headed east to join his parents at the trading store they had started.

Here, he got to know the Lowveld and the local tribes. He also became fluent in Swazi. He had his first taste of combat in the Magato War, fought against the Basuto chief of that name, in the Zoutpansberg region.

When Wolhuter returned home, he learnt that the Anglo-Boer War had broken out, and that a force of volunteers was being raised at Nomabasha near the Swaziland border to patrol the region.

On joining Steinaecker’s Horse, Wolhuter’s first assignment was to oversee a gang making a road from Komatipoort bridge to Mateveskom.