Rorke's Drift By Those Who Were There: Volume I: 1

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Nice to see some ‘new’ photographs that I had not seen before, but there was one photograph that I had seen before, which in my opinion is incorrectly identified. That is the photograph identified as Prince Dabulamanzi kaMpande listed as No. 34. The photograph has previously appeared in Ian Knight’s Nothing Remains But to Fight. As some of the forum might be aware I have something of a close affinity with the descendant family of Prince Dabulamanzi. I vividly recall showing my late, great friend Prince V. A. Shange the photograph in Nothing Remains But to Fight, and his response he refuted it then with the words “That is not my grandfather! That is my Great Uncle his half-brother, Prince Ndabuko.”

What we get is a sensible, reasoned and well supported new analysiss that eschews all modern accounts to return to the words of those whe were there. His arguments are cogent and difficult to deny but he is the first to admit that several survivors change their accounts over the years. Some to appease the communities where the dead came from others for self aggrandisement or simple old agae and confused memory. I think all we can say for certainty is that, because the 24th’s Regimental Depot had been in Brecon since 1873,.and the fact that the Regiment had been given the counties of Cardigan, Radnor, Brecon, and Monmouth for recruiting, then the 24th Regiment would have contained a higher proportion of Welshmen than most other British Regiments (excepting of course the 23rd and 41st Regiments). On 22 January 1879, as one of the greatest disasters to befall British troops of the Victorian era was nearing its conclusion at Isandlwana, a very different story was about to unfold a few miles away at the mission station of Rorke’s Drift. Remember that until very recently, the Encyclopedia Britannica entry for "Wales" read "see England."Henderson then followed his departing men. Upon witnessing the withdrawal of Henderson's NNH troop, Captain Stevenson's NNC company abandoned the cattle kraal and fled, greatly reducing the strength of the defending garrison. [28] Outraged that Stevenson and some of his colonial NCOs [29] had also fled from the barricades, a few British soldiers fired after them, killing Corporal William Anderson. The book includes all the citations for the 11 (yes eleven) Victoria Crosses earned over the 12 hours of fighting. The fighting was hand-to-hand at times, with bayonets being used against spears in the night time. Following the destruction of the1/24trh at Isandlwana replacements were hurried out from drafts appointed from no fewer then eleven line battalions of very mixed origins. The 24th's lasting associations with Wales TRULY DATE FROM a new wave of army reorganisation instituted in APRIL 1881 when the old regimental numbers were discontinued and new local titles allocated. (Source Ian Knight)

I would question this as a fact. In 1870 the Army Enlistment Act reduced the amount of time spent with the colours from 12 to 6 years. Let’s say there were 1700 men serving with the two battalions of the 24th in 1870. On average, one twelfth of these men would leave (being time served) each year from 1870. So by 1879, over a period of 9 years, some 1270 “long service” men would have been replaced by 1270 “short service” men. Thus in 1879, 74% of both battalions would in fact be “short service” men and nearly 850 of these (that is, about 50% of the men serving in 1879) would have done their training at Brecon !!!! These are of course mathematical average figures – the actual figures could be gleaned by going through the enlistment details of each of the men who served in the 24th from 1870 to 1879, but they are not going to produce substantially different figures. Laband, John (1992). Kingdom in Crisis: The Zulu Response to the British Invasion of 1879. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-3582-1. A few very different ethnic groups met at Rorke's Drift in 1879, and the film gave all but one an equitable treatment. The English in the film are represented most prominently in the film by Bromhead's swaggering aristocratic character, and not by the bravery of the mostly English troops that he historically commanded. The fact that the defenders at Rorke's Drift were mostly English was glossed over by the film: "This is a Welsh regiment man, although there are a few foreigners from England in it." In fact, the composition of 'B' company, 24th Regiment, although later based out of Wales, actually contained only a small minority of Welsh defenders in 1879. The most genuinely kind character in the film also happens to be Welsh, a private named Tommy who constantly worries about the fate of a calf whose mother had died [1] (Morris, 1994: 99). Additionally, at the real battle, a missionary stood watch on a nearby hill as a sentry to warn of the Zulu's approach. However, once again the film makes a slight, yet telling departure from reality, by replacing the religious figure with two Welsh sentries. In one fell swoop, religion finds itself marginalized and the Welsh are lionized as the outpost's first line of defense. Baker was Welsh by birth and Prebble had been stationed in North Wales during much of the Second World War (to say nothing of the suffering of Baker's Welsh ancestors at the hands of the English) and so it seems fair to attribute the film's pro-Welsh tone largely to its producers (Prebble, 1993: 47).Knight, Ian, Rorke's Drift 1879, "Pinned Like Rats in a Hole"; Osprey Campaign Series #41, Osprey Publishing 1996, ISBN 1-85532-506-3. Note the word "some" in the third line down. A little further research tells us these "some" were English mineral and coal exploiters! hours prior to Rorke's Drift, the Zulus had massacred 1300 British soldiers at iSandlwana, about 6 miles away. Survivors from this massacre passed by Rorke's Drift as they were fleeing, telling the men there what was coming their way. Gunner John Cantwell; N Batt, 5th Brig Royal Horse Artillery (demoted from bombardier wheeler the day before the battle) Haggard, H. Rider; Kerr, C. H. M. (ill.) (1893). "The Tale of Isandhlwana and Rorke's Drift". In Lang (ed.). The true story book. London; New York: Longmans, Green. pp.132–152.

Edward M. Spiers, The Scottish Soldier and Empire, 1854–1902, Edinburgh University Press, 2006, p. 41. ISBN 978-0-7486-2354-9 Also: Ian Knight, Zulu War, Osprey, 2004, p. 9, "By late 1878 Frere had manipulated a diplomatic crisis with the Zulus..." Colenso 1880, pp. 261–262, "the terms... are evidently such as he (Cetshwayo) may not improbably refuse, even at the risk of war... to preclude you from incurring the delay... involved in consulting Her Majesty's Government upon a subject of so much importance as the terms..." Also: Ian Knight, Zulu War, Osprey, 2004, p. 11, "...an ultimatum with which, Frere knew, they could not possibly comply." On 22 January 1879, during the final hour of the Battle of iSandlwana – one of the greatest disasters ever to befall British troops during the Victorian era – a very different story was about to unfold a few miles away at the mission station of Rorke’s Drift. When a Zulu force of more than 3,000 warriors turned their attention to the small outpost, defended by around 150 British and Imperial troops, the odds of the British surviving were staggeringly low. The British victory that ensued, therefore, would go down as one of the most heroic actions of all time, and has enraptured military history enthusiasts for decades. Yes, the 24th's depot had been moved to Brecon by the government in 1873, but both battalions of the regiment had never been there when the Zulu war started in 1879, and both battalions consisted of long term service men, meaning that it would have been well after Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift before newly trained recruits would have started to filter through to the ranks.

Corporal Christian Schiess VC

Around 8:00a.m., another force appeared, and the defenders left their breakfast to man their positions again. However, the force turned out to be the vanguard of Lord Chelmsford's relief column. It never ceases to amaze me how some people have become totally fixated by the number of Welshmen at Rorke’s Drift. Morris, Donald R. The Washing of the Spears: A History of the Rise of the Zulu Nation under Shaka and Its Fall in the Zulu War of 1879. Da Capo Press, 1998, ISBN 0-306-80866-8. The force was sufficient, in Chard's estimation, to fend off the Zulus. Chard posted the British soldiers around the perimeter, adding some of the more able patients, the 'casuals' and civilians, and those of the NNC who possessed firearms along the barricade. The rest of the NNC, armed only with spears, were posted outside the mealie bag and biscuit box barricade within the stone-walled cattle kraal. [18]