GAVE MAN WHO WAS GENERAL

Evening Star, Issue 20720, 17 February 1931, Page 11

GAVE MAN WHO WAS GENERAL

. Exmoor’s cave man, who was-once a general in the army ofHaitai, the black republic, was buried in tbe little church of St. Decuman, near Miiiehoad,. England, recently. . , He was John. Moles, aged eighty, who for many years lived in a cave near the roadside at Durikery Beacon. A short time ago he had to leave his cave when the land was taken 'over by a now, owner, but he refused to give up hia open-air life, and spent his last days in a rough shed on the moor at Timbers* combe, where he died. He joined the army-’ in 1870. fought in the 34th Foot Regiment in; the Afghan war, entered Kabu, and was with thd-.detachment, which," fighting in Tibet, forced its way into Lhasa, tho “Forbidden City.” Ho fought under Kitchener in the. Sudan. / Moles left tho army, and became a sailor. He went to South America, where ho (vorked in plantations, and became a trader; Ho. mixed in politics, and took part in several revolutions. At Haitai he helped the revolutionaries in a successful: coup d’etat, and was'made a general. A few years later another revolution overthrow his party, and Moles became a refugee. He returned to England, where he settled down in tho west country as a mole trapper.