Sir Alfred Pease

“I always considered that the best, highest and most difficult pheasants in England were the ones sent over the guns from Hanging Stone and the hill tops of Hutton and Pinchinthorpe, for they were not only very high and fast, but divers and twisters. I see guns on November 21st and 22nd shot 562 of these.”

So wrote Sir Alfred Pease reflecting in his memoirs “Half A Century Of Sport” ¹Bart. Alfred Pease, Sir. “Half A Century Of Sport”. 1932. Page 246. Available online at https://ia801609.us.archive.org/11/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.208112/2015.208112.Half-A_text.pdf. The year was 1901; the number of birds shot is staggering.

Sir Alfred Pease was the son of Sir Joseph Whitwell Pease who I posted about the day before last.

Pease became both a director and partner of the family bank, J. & J. W. Pease, and in their various mining and manufacturing industries, and, until 1902, he was Liberal M.P. for Cleveland.

All changed in 1902 when the family bank failed. He resigned his Parliamentary seat, due to “declining health”, and retiring to Africa, eventually leasing 6,000 acres in British East Africa [Kenya]²Wikipedia Contributors (2022). Sir Alfred Pease, 2nd Baronet. [online] Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Alfred_Pease,_2nd_Baronet#Africa [Accessed 15 Feb. 2022]..

Sir Alfred Pease (centre) in 1909, hunting with former US President Theodore Roosevelt (right) and Roosevelt’s son Kermit.

In 1909, Pease entertained former US President Theodore Roosevelt and his son, Kermit, at his home in Africa³Bart. Alfred Pease, Sir. “Half A Century Of Sport”. 1932. Page 278. Available online at https://ia801609.us.archive.org/11/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.208112/2015.208112.Half-A_text.pdf. Over the 13 days, their ‘bag’ amounted to:

• • • • 7 Lions
      • 1 Rhinoceros
      • 3 bull Giraffes
      • 1 Eland
      • 2 Wildebeestes
      • 5 or more Zebra
      • about 6 Hartebeestes
      • about 6 Grant’s Gazelles
      • 5 or 6 Thompson’s Gazelles
      • 5 Chanler’s Reedbucks
      • 2 Klipspringers
      • a number of Steinbuck
      • 1 Dik-Dik
      • 1 Impala
      • a number of Duikers
      • 1 Cheetah, 3 cubs caught
      • 1 Hyaena
      • 1 WartHog

Sounds like they took a shot at anything that moved.

The Peases were a Quaker family and I must say I find it difficult to reconcile this enthusiasm with hunting with that faith. My limited understanding is that Quakerism is a peaceful and humanitarian faith. Quakers were heavily involved in prison reform, the abolitionist movement and later, during the World Wars on the 20th-century many became conscientious objectors.

Yet conditions in the Peases’ mines and factories were terrible, and the Portsmouth Affair showed a tendency of duplicity even to their own family.

Pease’s views on equal rights for women were also not progressivist. In 1887, in a public debate held in Guisborough about the extension of the political franchise to women, Pease “argued that woman was no more fitted to be a member of Parliament or a magistrate than she was fitted to be a stone-breaker“⁴Women’s Suffrage Journal, Volume 18, Issue 209, May 2, 1887. N.p., 2 May 1887. Archives Unbound, link.gale.com/apps/doc/SC5105607716/GDCS?u=ed_itw&sid=GDCS&xid=5683a634&pg=7. Accessed 17 Apr. 2021..

The photo shows Hanging Stone on a very wet and misty morning. The “hill tops of Hutton and Pinchinthorpe” are to the left.

• 1
  Bart. Alfred Pease, Sir. “Half A Century Of Sport”. 1932. Page 246. Available online at https://ia801609.us.archive.org/11/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.208112/2015.208112.Half-A_text.pdf
• 2
  Wikipedia Contributors (2022). Sir Alfred Pease, 2nd Baronet. [online] Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Alfred_Pease,_2nd_Baronet#Africa [Accessed 15 Feb. 2022].
• 3
  Bart. Alfred Pease, Sir. “Half A Century Of Sport”. 1932. Page 278. Available online at https://ia801609.us.archive.org/11/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.208112/2015.208112.Half-A_text.pdf
• 4
  Women’s Suffrage Journal, Volume 18, Issue 209, May 2, 1887. N.p., 2 May 1887. Archives Unbound, link.gale.com/apps/doc/SC5105607716/GDCS?u=ed_itw&sid=GDCS&xid=5683a634&pg=7. Accessed 17 Apr. 2021.