Corporal Norman Moore of the Rhodesian Army led his patrol to a farm in the Centenary district of north-east Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) where it was thought guerrilla fighters hostile to Ian Smith’s government were hiding out. As the soldiers approached, the corporal’s vehicle went over a land mine which blew up, fatally injuring him.

Three of the guerrillas, who have never been named, were captured and tried in secret for the corporal’s murder. They were hanged on Monday, May 21st, 1973 in Salisbury (now Harare) Prison. They were the first of several hundred hanged by the Smith regime after their guerrilla war began in 1972.