The history of Jock of the Bushveld

The history of Jock of the Bushveld

Kids, especially in South Africa, grew up with the tales of Jock in the book of Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, Jock of the Bushveld - The story of a Staffordshire bull terrier befriended by Percy Fitzpatrick. Jock of the Bushveld was first published in 1907 and it became an instant bestseller and local classic - a true South African gem.

The tale starts where Percy comes to the Bushveld region of the Transvaal to work for transport riders in search of gold, fortune and love. Not long after, one of the transport rider's bull terrier has a litter of six puppies. Five of the six are strong, fat and have good colouring. But, one of them is a runt, weedy, ill-proportioned and is the victim of constant sibling attack. The owner decides to get rid of the pup by drowning it. Percy interferes just in time to save the pup’s life and after a night of contemplation, he decides to stick with the little weakling of the litter. He calls him Jock and a bond is formed from the start. Jock is very loyal towards Percy and brave, as seen as the tale unfolds.

Towards the end of the tale Jock gets kicked by a Kudu cow, losing his hearing which later leads to his death. Fitzpatrick gives Jock to a friend until he has a safer place for him to live in the town, where with his deafness; he is unsafe from traffic and people. The friend, Ted, loans Jock to a store-owner Tom Barnett, who is having trouble with thieves and kraal dogs. He cannot hear Tom when he calls him, and is mistakenly shot, because he is thought to be the dog killing chickens on the farm. Meanwhile Jock has already killed the other intruding dog.

This was the start of many a great adventure. The odd little puppy grew into a great and fearless dog. He was well liked, well respected and well behaved. However, it was only when Fitzpatrick had made his fortune, settled down to have a family and become an established and well-respected member of society that he took pen to paper at the urging of his children and shared these delightful tales with the rest of the world.

Fitzpatrick later recounted these adventures as bedtime stories to his children. Rudyard Kipling, a good friend of Fitzpatrick, also took part in these story-telling evenings and eventually persuaded him to collect these tales in book form. Illustrations for the book were done by Edmund Caldwell, a brother of Mary Tourtel, creator of Rupert Bear. Since 1907 the book has never been out of print.

In the late 1980s a film was made, based on the story of Jock. The movie did not prove popular with American audiences primarily to its sad ending. In 1995 new movies with an ending that was more palatable to this audience was released.

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