The Gamma Adventurers League

Introduction

The Gamma Adventurers were a influential group of Explorers, Mountaineers, Sportsmen and Gentlemen. The group consisted of five permanent members: Henry Makepeace Glaister-Walker, Max Harvey Eaton, Hyder Jamal Ali, Michael Peter Newling and Marc Francis Hughes. They rose to fame from the late 1880s until the groups finally disbanded in 1924 after the untimely death of George Herbert Leigh Mallory. Ironically, the Gamma league famous for being a quintet, took its name from gamma's value of three in Greek numerals, as the league originally started with just three members. At its peak the group had 176 active members across the globe, the five permanent members always maintained control over the leagues general direction. Not a lot was known about the League or its members until October 2007 when an Ancestor of Hyder Jamal Ali spoke out.

Early Days

First Boer War (1880-1881)

The group was formed after a chance encounter at the Battle of Laing's Nek on 28 January 1881. Fighting under the command of Major-General Sir George Pomeroy Colley who was attempting to break through the Boer positions on the Drakensberg range to relieve their garrisons. But the Boers, under the command of Piet Joubert repulsed the British cavalry and infantry attacks. Lieutenant Eaton and Corporal Hughes, fighting at Laing's Nek, were detached from the rest of the British Garrison after successfully breaking through the fortified Boer position. The remarkable feat left the two surrounded and captured.

Eaton and Hughes were taken north to a Boer garrison in the hills of the Unbago province. Among the prisoners was young Scottish mercenary, Henry Makepeace Glaister-Walker but the actual first meeting between the three is shrouded in uncertainty. The tale goes, that in captivity after a disagreement between the brash Scott and the proud Englishman Hughes, came to blows in a two and half hour boxing match, with Eaton as referee. However, the three soon became close friends and hatched a daring plan to escape to the British camp at Transvaal. The escape consisted of a 45 mile hike, over desert like terrain, a feat still talked of locally as stunning piece of endurance. Eaton and Glaister-Walker later joked that they had to carry Hughes the entire way, a story Hughes has always denied.

After returning to Transvaal and finding the regiment in disarray and themselves announced missing in action presumed dead; they decidided to follow a job opportunity Glaister-Walker proposed. He suggested a money making opportunity training Ghurkas with an old friend Haider Ali, later to become a permanent member of the league.

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