The War Department Retired

Sculpture of a group of old Dagga Boys

Bronze Africa ‘The War Department Retired’

My long association with the Cape Buffalo started in 1967 while working for the Anglo-American corporation in Rhodesia. At the time searching in the Nagapande River basin for a diamond pipe that was never located. We had a crew of around 100 tribesmen and they had to be fed and the hunt license to feed that crew was in my name. I was issued with a Parker Hale 375 which was closely related to a piece of shit! Young and stupid at the time I considered myself indestructible and despite spending time up trees and down gullies with a spent shell stuck in the breach I managed to keep the larder full. Shortly after a very close shave with an old bull I was told quietly by head of the Game Department who monitored what I was doing that I was simply a dead man walking “They will kill you young man”!

I was smart enough to take heed of that and now I sit 83 years old and alive to tell the tale and in time to sculpt a bronze piece with 6 bulls on a base which I called ‘The War Department’. Sculpted in about 2007 it eventually sold out and for a number of years I contended myself by sculpting other Buffalo pieces and now in 2025 decided that at least 3 of the original War Department Bulls might still be alive but very much bedraggled and broken down I called this one ‘The War Department Retired’ – take a look and enjoy before they all become Hyena Bait.

Large Sculptures

Browse through my other pieces in this gallery category.