Thomas Michael "Mad Mike" Hoare
Mike Hoare in the Congo in 1964 Credit: Agence Presse
Nickname	Mad Mike
Born	1920 India
Service/branch	British Army (Armour) and later mercenary
Rank	Colonel

Thomas Michael Hoare (born 1920) (Mad Mike) is an Irish mercenary leader known for military activities in Africa and his failed attempt to conduct a coup d'état in the Seychelles.

Early life and military career[link]

Hoare was born in India.^[1] He spent his early days in Ireland and was educated in England. He served in North Africa as an Armour officer in the British Army during World War II, and achieved the rank of Captain. After the war, he completed his training as a chartered accountant, and qualified in 1948.^[2] He emigrated to Durban, Natal Province, Union of South Africa, where he ran safaris and became a soldier-for-hire in various African countries.

Congo crisis[link]

During the Congo Crisis Mike Hoare organized and led two separate mercenary groups:

• 1960–1961. Major Mike Hoare's first mercenary action was in Katanga, a province trying to break away from the newly independent Congo. The unit was called "4 Commando". During this time he married Phyllis Simms, an airline stewardess.

• 1964. Congolese Prime Minister Moïse Tshombe hired "Major" Mike Hoare to lead a military unit called 5 Commando ANC made up of about 300 men most of whom were from South Africa. His second in command was a young South African paratrooper Capt. GD Snygans. The unit's mission was to fight a revolt known as the Simba Rebellion. Later Hoare and his mercenaries worked in concert with Belgian paratroopers, Cuban exile pilots, and CIA-hired mercenaries who attempted to save 1,600 civilians (mostly Europeans and missionaries) in Stanleyville from the Simba rebels in Operation Dragon Rouge. This operation saved many lives.^[3] Hoare was later promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in the ANC and 5 Commando expanded into a two-battalion force. Hoare commanded 5 Commando from July 1964 to November 1965.^[4]

The epithet "Mad" Mike Hoare comes from broadcasts by Communist East German radio during the fighting in the Congo in the Sixties. They would precede their commentary with "The mad bloodhound, Mike Hoare".

Irish-South African novelist Bree O'Mara (1968–2010) was his niece. She had written an unpublished account of his adventures as a mercenary in the Congo,^[5] when she died on Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771.

The Seychelles affair and subsequent conviction[link]

In 1978, Seychelles exiles in South Africa, acting in behalf of ex-president James Mancham, discussed with South African Government officials launching a coup d'état against the new president France-Albert René. The military option was decided in Washington, D.C., due to United States concerns over access to its new military base in Diego Garcia island, the necessity to move operations from the Seychelles to Diego Garcia, and the determination that René was not corruptible in favour of the Americans.

Associates of Mancham contacted Hoare, then in South Africa as a civilian resident, to fight alongside fifty-three other mercenary soldiers, including South African special forces (Recces), former Rhodesian soldiers, and ex-Congo mercenaries.^[6]

Hoare got together a group of white, middle class mercenaries, and dubbed them "Ye Ancient Order of Froth-Blowers" (AOFB) after a posh English social club of the 1930s. In order for the plan to work, he disguised the mercenaries as a rugby club, and hid AK-47s in the bottom of his luggage, as he explained in his book The Seychelles Affair:

"We were a Johannesburg beer-drinking club. We met formally once a week in our favourite pub in Braamfontein. We played Rugby. Once a year we organised a holiday for our members. We obtained special charter rates. Last year we went to Mauritius. In the best traditions of the original AOFB we collected toys for underprivileged kids and distributed them to orphanages... I made sure the toys were as bulky as possible and weighed little. Rugger footballs were ideal. These were packed in the special baggage above the false bottom to compensate for the weight of the weapon."^[7]

The fighting started prematurely when one of Hoare's men accidentally got in the something to declare line and the customs officer insisted on searching his bag. The rifles were well-concealed in the false-bottomed kitbags but for some reason the rifle was found and the customs man, running from the scene, sounded the alarm. One of Hoare's men pulled his own, disassembled AK-47 from the concealed compartment in the luggage, assembled it, loaded it and shot the escaping customs man before he could reach the other side of the building. The plan for the coup proceeded despite this set-back with one team of Hoare's men attempting to capture a barracks. Fighting ensued at the airport and in the middle of this, an Air India jet (Air India Boeing aircraft Flight 224), landed at the airport, damaging a flap on one of the trucks strewn on the runway. Hoare managed to negotiate a ceasefire before the aircraft and passengers were caught in the crossfire. After several hours, the mercenaries found themselves in an unfavorable position and some wanted to depart on the aircraft, which needed fuel. Hoare conceded and the captain of the aircraft allowed them on board after Hoare had found fuel for the aircraft. On board, Hoare asked the captain why he had landed when he had been informed of the fighting taking place and he responded that once the aircraft had started to descend, he did not have enough fuel to climb the aircraft back to cruising altitude and still make his destination.

Hoare's men still had their weapons and Hoare asked the captain if he would allow the door to be opened so they could ditch the weapons over the sea before they returned to South Africa, but the captain laughed at Hoare's out-of-date knowledge on how pressurized aircraft functioned and told him it would not be possible.

Four of the mercenary soldiers were left behind and were convicted of treason in the Seychelles.^[6]

In January 1982 an International Commission, appointed by the United Nations Security Council in Resolution 496, inquired into the attempted coup d'état. The UN report concluded that South African defence agencies were involved, including supplying weapons and ammunition.

Being associated with the South African security services, the hijackers were initially charged with kidnapping, which carries no minimum sentence, but this was upgraded to hijacking after international pressure.^[6]

Mike Hoare was found guilty of airplane hijacking and sentenced to 10 years in prison. In total, forty-two of the forty-three alleged hijackers were convicted. One of the mercenaries, an American veteran of the U.S. – Vietnam War, was found not guilty of hijacking, as he had been being seriously wounded in the firefight, and loaded aboard while sedated.^[6] Many of the other mercenaries, including the youngest of the group Raif St Clair, were quietly released after three months in their own prison wing.

While still in prison, Colonel Hoare began signing up 'Honorary Members' in 'The Wild Geese'. As the process required some information on former military service and military specialties, many reports called this a recruitment drive. Many thousands of active and former military personnel applied with Colonel Hoare, thus quite a database of potential mercenaries (contract employees) was developed, but none were ever called to serve with Colonel Hoare.

Hoare was a chartered accountant and member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. Previously the Institute had said it could not expel him despite protests from members as he had committed no offence and meticulously paid his membership dues. His imprisonment allowed the ICAEW to expel him from membership in 1983.^[2]

[edit] The Wild Geese

In the mid-1970s, Hoare was hired as technical adviser for the film The Wild Geese, the fictional story of a group of mercenary soldiers hired to rescue a deposed African president. Colonel Alan Faulkner (played by Richard Burton) was patterned on Hoare himself. At least one of the actors in the film (Ian Yule) had been an actual mercenary under Hoare's command. Of the actors playing mercenaries, four had been born in Africa, two were former POWs and most had received military training. Hardy Krüger was a former member of the Hitler youth, plus while serving in the Waffen SS was captured but escaped numerous times.

Works by Mike Hoare[link]

• Congo Mercenary, London: Hale (1967), ISBN 0-7090-4375-9; Boulder, CO: Paladin Press (reissue 2008, with new foreword), ISBN 978-1-58160-639-3
• Congo Warriors, London: Hale (1991), ISBN 0-7090-4369-4
• The Road to Kalamata : a Congo mercenary's personal memoir, Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books (1989), ISBN 0-669-20716-0; Boulder, CO: Paladin Press (reissue 2008, with new foreword), ISBN 978-1-58160-641-6
• The Seychelles Affair, Bantam, ISBN 0-593-01122-8
• Three Years with Sylvia, London: Hale, ISBN 0-7091-6194-8
• Mokoro — A Cry For Help! Durban North: Partners In Publishing (2007), ISBN 978-0-620-39365-2
• Mike Hoare′s Adventures in Africa Boulder, CO: Paladin Press (2010), ISBN 978-1-58160-732-1

Literature[link]

• Torsten Thomas/Gerhard Wiechmann: Moderne Landsknechte oder Militärspezialisten? Die "Wiedergeburt" des Söldnerwesens im 20.Jahrhundert im Kongo, 1960-1967, in: Stig Förster/Christian Jansen/Günther Kronenbitter (Hg.): Rückkehr der Condottieri? Krieg und Militär zwischen staatlichem Monopol und Privatisierung: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Paderborn u.a. 2009, p. 265-282.
• Anthony Mockler: The new mercenaries, New York 1985.

See also[link]

• Bob Denard
• Jean Schramme

Notes[link]

James Edward Hoare (born 1943) is a British academic and historian specializing in Chinese and Korean studies, and a career diplomat in the British Foreign Office.

Academia[link]

Dr. Hoare is a graduate of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). He has long been a member of the Anglo-Korean Society, the Korean Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, and the Royal Society for Asian Affairs.^[1]

In 2006, Dr. Hoare was President of the British Association of Korean Studies (BAKS).^[2]

Foreign Service[link]

After Britain and North Korea re-established diplomatic relations in 2000, Hoare was appointed British Chargé d'affaires in Pyongyang; and his work laid the foundation for the establishment of a full embassy in the North Korean capital.^[3]

Previously, Hoare had been head of the Foreign Office's North Asia and Pacific Research Group. He joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1969 and was stationed in Seoul in 1981-1984 and in Beijing in 1988-1991.^[3]

Selected work[link]

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about James Hoare, OCLC/WorldCat encompasses roughly 30+ works in 60+ publications in 3 languages and 4,000+ library holdings.^[4]

Books

• 2007 -- Korea: The Past and Present with Susan Pares. London: Global Oriental. 10-ISBN 1-901903-54-0; 13-ISBN 978-1-901903-54-6 (cloth)
• 1999 -- Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Vol. III. London: RoutledgeCurzon. 10-ISBN 1-873410-89-1; 13-ISBN 978-1-873410-89-9 (cloth)
• 1999 - Embassies in the East: The Story of the British and their Embassies in China, Japan and Korea from 1859 to the Present. London: Curzon. 10-ISBN 0-7007-0512-0
• 1999 -- Korea: a Historical and Cultural Dictionary with Richard Rutt. London: Routledge. 10-ISBN 0-7007-0464-7: 13-ISBN 978-0-7007-0464-4
• 1994 - Japan's Treaty Ports and Foreign Settlements: The Uninvited Guests 1858-1899. London: Curzon. ISBN 1-873410-26-3
• 1994 - Nish, Ian and James E. Hoare, eds. Britain & Japan: Biographical Portraits, Vol. II. London: RoutledgeCurzon. 10-ISBN 1-873410-62-X
• 1988 - James Hoare & Susan Pares. Korea: An Introduction. Keegan Paul International. http://books.google.com/books/about/Korea.html?id=_zoOAAAAQAAJ.

Periodicals

• 1994 - "Building Politics: the British Embassy Peking, 1949-1992," in The Pacific Review,' Vol. 7.

See also[link]

• List of Ambassadors from the United Kingdom to North Korea
• Global Oriental

Notes[link]

This biography article of a United Kingdom academic is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Mike Masters

Personal information
Full name	Michael Masters
Date of birth	(1967-04-26) April 26, 1967 (age 45)
Place of birth	Leesville, Louisiana, United States
Height	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Playing position	Forward
Youth career
1985-1988	Williams College
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1989–1990	Albany Capitals	?	(?)
1990–1991	San Francisco Bay Blackhawks	16	(4)
1990–1991	→ Colchester United (loan)	11	(1)
1991–1992	Colchester United	15	(7)
1992–?	Newbury Town	?	(?)
?–1994	Boston Storm	?	(?)
1994–1997	Long Island Rough Riders	?	(?)
National team
1992	United States	1	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Michael “Mike” Masters (born April 26, 1967 in Leesville, Louisiana) is a former U.S. soccer forward who is the first American to score a goal in Wembley Stadium. He played one season in the American Soccer League, three season in its successor, the American Professional Soccer League, and the end of the 1991-1992 English season during which his team, Colchester United, won the FA Trophy final. Masters also earned one cap with the U.S. national team in 1992.

High school and college[link]

Masters grew up on Long Island and graduated from The Wheatley School of Old Westbury, New York in 1985. In 1991, the school inducted Masters into its Athletic Hall of Fame for his high school soccer, basketball and track and field exploits.^[1] Masters then attended Williams College of Williamstown, Massachusetts. At Williams, he played on the NCAA Division III men’s soccer team from 1985 to 1988. In 1987 and 1988 he was selected as a first team All American.^[2] He finished his four years Williams with a school record forty-six goals, a record broken in 1996 by Brad Murray.^[3]

Professional[link]

Following his graduation from Williams in 1989, Masters signed with the Albany Capitals of the American Soccer League (ASL). In 1990, the ASL merged with the Western Soccer League to form the American Professional Soccer League (APSL). Masters and the Capitals then played the 1990 and 1991 APSL seasons. In 1990, he was the third leading scorer in the APSL with 14 goals. In 1991, Masters scored seven goals as the Capitals went to the APSL title game only to lose to the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks. Despite this success, the Capitals folded during the off-season and Masters moved west to join the Blackhawks for the 1992 season. He played sixteen games, scoring four goals as the team finished 8-8.^[4] At the end of the APSL season, Masters traveled to England for a trial with Colchester United which, after relegation the previous year, played in the GM Vauxhall Conference. The Conference is the fifth tier of English football and, while classified as 'non-league', still receives significant media coverage and support from fans. Masters quickly attained cult status amongst Colchester supporters, scoring many vital goals in the clubs promotion winning 1991-92 season, including a hat-trick in the final game - a 5-0 win against Barrow FC that saw the 'U's' promoted back to the football league. A few days later, Masters headed the first goal in Colchester’s 3-1 victory over Witton Albion in the FA Trophy final, sealing the so-called 'non-league' double for his side. That was the first goal scored by an American in a Wembley Stadium cup competition. Despite his productive time with Colchester, the British Home Office denied Colchester a work permit for Masters and he returned to the United States.^[5] In 1994, the Boston Storm traded Masters to the Long Island Rough Riders during the season.^[6] He played for the Roughriders through the 1997 season.^[7]

National team[link]

On June 27, 1992, Masters earned his one and only cap with the U.S. national team as a substitute for Dominic Kinnear in a scoreless tie with Uruguay.^[8][9]

Post-soccer[link]

Following his time with the national team, Mike spent some time coaching at DePaul University. He went on to receive his MBA at DePaul. He currently works on Wall Street as an investment banker with Barclays Bank.

He resides in New York with his wife and son.

Honours[link]

Club[link]

Colchester United^[10][11]

• Football Conference Winner (1): 1991–92
• Football Conference Runner-up (1): 1990–91
• FA Trophy Winner (1): 1991–92

References[link]