Edward Cornelius Ungerer

Marriage Register, George: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSKD-HR2Y

Death Notice: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9Q97-Y3QF-GY9

Family Tree: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.2.1/MZQB-GGW

Letter from George Atkinson (Edward's first cousin once removed) to his son, Robert. Source: https://www.internetgunclub.com/archived-forum/posts.php?topicid=1165

"Knysna, April 28, 1898.
My Dear Robert, - Owing to Uncle George's death there are now only John Duthie and myself left of the party who took a prominent part in the Duke of Edinburgh's elephant hunt at Knysna, and as we may join the great majority at any time, I now commit to paper an account of the Hunt, which may become history during your lifetime. I shall not enter into how the Duke landed and was sung to by the school-children, cheered by the populace, etc., but simply detail the actual Hunt.

The Duke having arrived the day before and spent the night at Horn's Royal Hotel, about fifty of us started with him on horseback the next morning at 8 o'clock to Buffels Nek, in which vicinity we knew there were some elephants. Some wagons with tents and provisions, etc., had left the night before, which we reached in the afternoon and pitched camp where the Forester's house now is; had supper and retired for the night. Rain came down in torrents soon after we had turned in, but the next morning was clear and bright and we started after breakfast, following some elephant paths alomg the northern slope of the Buffels Nek ridge towards Knysna River. After following this course for a couple of hours we came to the edge of the ridge "Maria's Kop", and on looking down saw in the hollow below an open lane between Gouna Forest and Main Forest (Jonkersberg), and there we saw sixteen elephants in the open, sunning themselves, one large bull from two or three feet higher than any of the others. The elephants were about 500 yards off, about the middle of the open, which was about 400 yards wide. Well, after a hasty consultation it was decided that we should tie up the dogs, and the Duke with a small party should stalk the elephants on foot. The following gentlemen were then selected to accompany him : General Bisset (I forget his regiment); Sir Walter Currie, Commandant F A M P; captain Gordon, HMS Petrel; George Rex; Thomas Rex; Archie Duthie; John Duthie and myself; also Smith, the Duke's Fidus Achates, and the two scouts or hunters John Stroebel and Edward Ungerer.

After proceeding some distance along the ridge of the Jonkersberg Forest, we heard a dog that had got loose yelping after us, which of course disturbed the elephants and the party who had remained behind now shouted that they had bolted into the gOuna bush, so we started to run after them in single file along an elephant path through the thick scrub. I, being the youngest of the party, naturally took a back seat and was the last in the row; but being pretty active in those days I soon began passing some of the older ones as they got pumped on the road, among them Sir Walter Currie who was carrying the Duke's heavy rifle (18 lbs weight). When I came up with teh Duke, who was standing at the edge of the forest where the quarry had entered, he said to me : "Where is Sir Walter with my gun?" "I passed him on the way, pumped," said I. "Will you go back and fetch my gun," said he. So i ran like a lamplighter and fetched it, and when I came back I found the whole party from the ridge above there, and the dogs in the bush fighting with the elephants, one of which at that moment rushed out eight yards from where we were standing with the dogs after him. About forty guns spoke at he same time, and he beat a hasty retreat, riddled with lead. The wonder is that they did not drop him. Just then we spied three others, two cows and a calf, walking across the open about 300 yards off, when of course the guns began to play on them. Some of the party handed their guns to the Duke to have an extra shot while I was laoding his, but the elephants continued at a slow walk keeping the calf between them as much as possible till they got into the forest, where of course we lost sight of them. As it was getting late we mounted our horses and returned to camp. Round the camp fires that night there was a good deal of speculation as to the ultimate fate of the elephants we had wounded during the day, and Archie Duthie, John Duthie and I volunteered to go off the next morning and try to discover their fate or whereabouts. We accordingly left camp on foot the next day before daylight, taking Stroebel and Ungerer with us,returning after dark that night, having had a fourteen hour's tramp without seeing anything of the elephants beyond some blood occasionally on the leaves, twigs and stones, where they had passed along. On our return to camp that night we found my father and the Honourable Barrington there, they having ridden up from Knysna to see how we were getting on, and later on Mr Newdigate, of Forest Hall, arrived to tell us taht three elephants had been seen that afterenoon in a detached bit of Forest called "Middle Erf", about six miles from the village on the Plettenberg Bay road. The next morning we were astir very early, and after partaking of some coffee mounted our horses and made the best of our way to Middle Erf. Before starting the Duke asked me if I would carry his heavy rifle again that day for him, which I agreed to do. Arriving at Middle Erf we ascertained from some scouts who were on watch there, that the elephants were still in the detached bush which is about three miles in circumference and abouta quarter of a mile from the Main Forest. It was then decided that the Duke with his party of the previous occasion should station themselves at a point between the Main and detached Forest, while Stroebel, Ungerer and some others should go in with the dogs and worry the elephants, the idea being that they would make for the Main Forest when disturbed and that we could shoot them when crossing the open space. we were not long in position before we heard the elephants trumpeting, with the dogs after them; but instead of making for the Main Forest they kept running round and round in the small bush. We could see them passing an opening opposite where we were standing every 15 or 20 minutes, and after this had occurred some six or seven times we decided to station ourselves near this opening to get a shot when next they came along. We did so, but after waiting for about half an hour ans seeing nothing of the elephants and not hearing the dogs, Uncle george called to one of the boys (Piet Stroebel), who was holding our horses, to mount one and ride round the bush to find the hunters and get them to fire a few shots to stir up the dogs who were fagged and tired. The boy on horseback had only gone a hundred yards from us when he met an elephant leisurely coming round the bush towards him. They both stopped short and faced each other for a few seconds, when the boy wheeled his horse round and galloped back to us, the elephant following close behind him.

The boy being in direct line between us and his pusuer we could not shoot till he (the boy) had passed us, when the Duke fired right and left at about 8 yards! One bullet entered the forehead above the right eye and the other between the eye and the tusk, which brought him to a sudden stop, his feet ploughing up the ground and the bushes, owing to the impetus at which he was moving, and after nearly turning a somersault he fell broad-side at our feet, in fact we had to step back to make room for him, with his back to us. We ran round to his other side and some of the party handing their guns to the Duke he put six bullets into him just behind the fore leg, and this soon gave him his quietus. The Governor, Sir Phillip Wodehouse, and the rest of the party, who had been watching us from a ridge about 200 yards off, now galloped up, and we hoisted the Duke on to the dead elephant and gave him three cheers, the sound of which had scarcely died away when we heard the dogs fighting with another elephant, at bay on the edge of the bush not a hundred yards from where we were standing. The Duke not caring for another shot, about forty of the party rushed in and soon brought the old fellow down, riddled with all sorts and sizes of bullets. After inspecting the second elephant we retired to our wagons, which had outspanned about a mile off, to have some food and drink, having had nothing to eat or drink since our early coffee before leaving Buffels Nek. Next morning, after breakfast, we all rode back to Knysna village, and in the afternoon the Duke left in the 'Petrel' (taking the two heads and the skins of the elephants with him), to join his own ship waiting outside the Heads for him. The Duke shot his elephant on the 13th September, 1867."