Mad Mike the mercenary hailed as officer, gentleman and pirate

Asoldieroffortunewhospearheaded a number of coup attempts during the 1960s, 70s and 80s, has died peacefully in his sleep after a lifetime of violent conflict and controversy.

Michael “Mad Mike” Hoare, considered the world’s most famous mercenary, passed away at the age of 100.

His family said in a statement that he died at a care facility in Durban, South Africa, on Sunday.

Mr Hoare rose to fame commanding a unit of mercenary troops in the Congo during the 1960s.

But he was jailed for three years for hijacking a jet following a failed coup attempt in the Seychelles in 1981.

His son, Chris, described his father as “an officer and a gentleman” with a bit of “pirate thrown in”.

He added: “Mike Hoare lived by the philosophy that you get more out of life by living dangerously, so it is all the more remarkable that he lived more than 100 years.

“Most people who met Mike described him as a legend, and as an officer and a gentleman; only a few realised there was a bit of pirate thrown in.

“Known as ‘Mad Mike’, he was short and dapper, impossibly charming, unaccountably enigmatic, always polite, strangely proper, absolutely sane, good natured, a brilliant leader and an absolute legend.”

Mr Hoare was born in 1919 in India to Irish parents, and was educated in England.

After serving in the British Army during the Second World War and reaching the rank of major, Mr Hoare qualified as a chartered accountant and emigrated to South Africa in 1948.

In 1961 he commanded a unit of mercenary troops in Katanga and was a SA Special Forces commander.

Then in 1964-5 he led a unit of 300 mercenaries – which became known as the “Wild Geese” – in the Congo to suppress a Communist-inspired uprising.

He was given the nickname “Mad Mike” after East German radio regularly described him as “that mad bloodhound Hoare”.

The 1978 film The Wild Geese starred Richard Burton as Colonel Allen Faulkner, a character based heavily on Mr Hoare.

In 1981 Mr Hoare led a failed coup attempt in the Seychelles when the plot led to four people being sentenced to death. The late Conservative MP, Sir Nicholas Fairbairn, a leading

Clockwise from main: Mike Hoare with his personal bodyguard Sergeant Donald Grant; Richard Burton and Richard Harris in Wild Geese; Hoare in his later years

criminal QC, successfully pled for their leniency.

However, in 1995, the former Scottish Crime Squad foiled another attempted regime change in the Seychelles plotted by Hoare and masterminded by an associate in Gatehouse-of-fleet , Kirkcudbrightshire, when they intercepted a telefacsimile fax order for weapons and ammunition, vehicles and uniforms.

“He was short and dapper, impossibly charming, unaccountably enigmatic, always polite, strangely proper”

CHRIS HOARE