Ashley Pitt (born 1838) was a British Army major who was stationed in Western Australia during the Australian frontier wars of the late 19th century.
Biography[]
Ashley Pitt was born in Buckinghamshire, England in 1838, and he came from a family of British aristocracy. He became a British Army officer and was stationed in Australia amid the Australian frontier wars, during which his command suffered from numerous desertions. Pitt partnered with the Western Australia landowner Elliott Marston to help him deal with deserters; in exchange for handing over captured deserters (alive or dead) to Pitt, Marston received Pitt's protection. In 1880, Pitt and his redcoats briefly came across some of Marston's men as they drove a wagon to the Marston Waters ranch, during which Pitt had a tense confrontation with the American hired gun Matthew Quigley after associating Americans with unruliness; Quigley responded by saying that America had gotten rid of their own misfits by sending them back to England. After Quigley turned against Marston because of the latter's attempt to recruit him to carry out genocide, Marston recruited Pitt's Army regulars to track down Quigley. Pitt and his soldiers tracked down Quigley to Marston's ranch after Quigley killed Marston and the last of his men, and Pitt announced his intent to have Quigley hanged for his many crimes during his vendetta, while also bringing up the possibility of shooting Quigley along the way in an alleged "escape attempt". However, Pitt and his men were surrounded by Aboriginal warriors who took up positions on the hills surrounding the ranch, forcing Pitt and his command to retreat and leave Quigley free to return to America under an assumed name.