(1) General Sir Richard Hart at the unveiling of the Regimental Memorial at Isandlwana, March 1914
(2) Hansard, 25 March 1878
(3) The South Wales Borderers, Atkinson, C.T., Cambridge University Press, 1937
(4) Zulu: Isandlwana & Rorke's Drift, 22-23 January 1879, Knight, Ian, Windrow & Greene, 1992
(5) There Will Be an Awful Row at Home About This, Knight, Ian, West Valley Books, 1987
(6) Daily News, 12 February 1879, Graphic, 15 February 1879, Annual Register for the Year 1879 and Pall Mall Gazette, 12 February 1879, all make the link with the Indian Mutiny.
(1) Evidence of a less severe form of syphilis among medieval monks in Britain and elsewhere indicates that a type of non-sexually transmitted syphilis was already common in Europe. The Spanish introduced the virulent form.
(2) There were several other notable elevations from the ranks including Luke O'Connor, who won the VC at the Battle of the Alma as a sergeant and rose to become a major general. Major General Sir Hector MacDonald rose from the ranks in the Gordon Highlanders. Colonel Philip Eyre commanded the South Staffordshires that he had joined as a private. He was killed leading his Regiment at the Battle of Kirbekan in the Sudan in 1885.
(3) Report by Captain Essex, courtesy of the AZWHS
(1) Shaka Zulu, Ritter, E.A., Penguin, 1955
(2) ‘Political Power within the Zulu Kingdom’, Cope, R.L., Journal of Natal and Zulu History, 1985
(3) South Africa, Trollope, A., Tauchnitz, 1878, quoted in AZWHS Journal 1, 1997
(1) Zulu Battle Piece, Copeland, R., Collins, 1948
(2) Letter from Cetshwayo on learning of the annexation of the Transvaal, courtesy of the AZWHS
(3) Landdrost – a Boer regional official, usually elected
(4) Blue Books C.2222
(5) Ibid.
(6) From Midshipman to Field Marshal, Wood , E., Methuen & Co, 1906
(7) Lord Chelmsford's Zululand Campaign, Army Records Society Vol. 10, 1994
(8) The cartridge was named after Colonel E.M. Boxer (Royal Artillery) who developed this projectile at the Royal Laboratories. Fired at a target at 500 yards, the bullet rose 8 feet from a Martini-Henry compared with 15 feet from the old Enfield muzzle-loader.
(9) Not all mounted troops were armed with carbines. The Mounted Infantry under the command of Lieutenant Edward Browne VC carried Martini-Henry rifles.
(10) A Treatise on the British Martini-Henry, Temple, B.A., Greenhill Books, 1983
(11) Ibid.
(12) Colonel R. Buller VC, Memorandum to the Royal Laboratory, 11/6/1880
(13) Précis of the Zulu War Intelligence Division, War Office, Appendix 1.
(14) The Red Soldier, Emery, F., Hodder & Stoughton, 1977
(15) The Story of the Zulu Campaign, Ashe & Edgell, Sampson Low, 1880
(16) The South Wales Borderers 24th Foot 1689-1937, Atkinson, C.T., Cambridge University Press, 1937. See also Appendix J for a review of the nationality of the two battalions of the 24th Regiment serving in South Africa during the Anglo-Zulu war. Field Regulations South Africa 1878 Connected with the Zulu War of 1879, prepared by the Intelligence Branch of the War Office and published in 1881
(17) Anatomy of the Zulu Army, Knight, Ian, Greenhill, 1995. These rifles were prized as status symbols.
(18) Ibid.
(19) As reported in The Zulu War, Clammer, David, Pan Books, 1975
(20) Fight us in the Open, Laband, John, Shuter and Shooter, KwaZulu Monuments Council edition, 1985
(21) Ibid.
(1) Natal Colonist, 17 April 1879
(2) Letter from Chelmsford to Sir Theophilus Shepstone, 21 July 1879, in Lord Chelmsford's Zululand Campaign 1878-1879, Laband, John, Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd for the Army Records Society, 1994
(3) Letter from Chelmsford to Colonel H.E. Wood, 23 November 1878, Killie Campbell Library, Durban
(4) It is interesting to note Harford's comment about RD being used as a fort and entrenched as early as 11 January. This supports August Hammar's account of Witt's house being prepared for defence at the same time. Also, during the intense aftermath of the Zulu War when Chelmsford came under pressure to explain certain aspects of the defences of camps, he wrote in his own defence:
The labour of getting troops and supplies across the Buffalo river, and of making the roads passable for wheeled transport, absorbed nearly the entire strength of No. 3 Column from its arrival on the banks of the river, to its advance to Sandlwana. I know, however, that Colonel Glyn had given orders to Lieutenant Chard, Royal Engineers, to construct an entrenched post on the Natal side, and that it had been commenced by the detachments left behind before the column moved off [author's italics]. So long as the force was in occupation of the position at Sandlwana it covered directly the ford on the Buffalo River.
(5) PRO WO 33/34 56333. Letter from Chelmsford to Colonel H.E. Wood, 16 January 1879, Killie Campbell Library
(6) From an unpublished narrative by Captain (later Lieutenant General) W. Penn Symons in the 24th Regimental Museum at Brecon. Penn Symons, a 2/24th officer, was killed at Talana in the Second Boer War in 1899. He was requested by Queen Victoria not to publish this account in Chelmsford's lifetime.
(7) The Harford Diaries, Payne and Payne, Ultimatum Tree, 2010
(8) In Zululand with the British in 1879, Norris-Newman, C., W.H. Allen, 1880
(9) There will be an Awful Row at Home About This, Knight, Ian, West Valley Books, 1987
(10) From an unpublished narrative by Captain (later Lieutenant General) W. Penn Symons in the 24th Regimental Museum at Brecon
(11) Information from the King's own intelligence reports, p 63 of A Zulu King Speaks, Webb, C. de B. and Wright, J.B. (eds), University of Kwazulu Natal Press, 1987
(12) PRO WO 33/34 S 6333
(13) See Higginson, WO 33/34 S6333
(14) Harford's own handwritten account inserted into Norris-Newman's presentation copy to Harford of With the British in Zululand in 1879
(15) A Soldier's Life, Durnford, A.W., Sampson Low, 1882
(1) The Later Annals of Natal, Hattersley, A.F. (ed.), Longmans, 1938
(2) Hillier's letter to his father published 28 February 1879 in the Telegraph and Eastern Standard courtesy of private correspondence, Lock & Quantrill. This report may well be the same as that of Captain Edward Essex 75th (Stirlingshire) Regiment, Director of Transport for No 3 Column.
‘about eight A.M … a report arrived from a picquet stationed at a point about 1,500 yards distant, on a hill, to the north of the camp, that a body of enemy's troops could be seen approaching from northeast.’ WO 33/34, No 69, Chelmsford to Secretary of War, Court of Enquiry.
(3) The Natal Carbineers 1855-1911, Stalker, Rev. J. (ed), Davis, 1912
(4) Ibid.
(5) The Curling Letters of the Zulu War, Greaves, A. & Best., B., Pen & Sword Books, 2004
(6) PRO ADM 16486 S6333
(7) Archives of 24th Regimental Museum, Brecon
(8) A Lost Legionary in South Africa, Hamilton-Browne, G., Naval & Military Press, 2009
(9) Ibid.
(10) The Red Book, referring to the Natal Witness report
(11) AZWHS Journal 3, 1998
(12) Pope's diary, later found on the battlefield
(13) Lieutenant Charles Raw's personal account in Running the Gauntlet, Mossop, G., Nelson, 1937
(14) Isandhlwana: Zulu Battle Piece, Coupland, R., Collins, 1948
(15) Zulu Victory, Lock & Quantrill, Greenhill, 2002
(16) Brickhill, Court of Enquiry
(17) In 1990 the author was taken to the site by the Isandlwana battlefield curator, George Chadwick. The cairns were repaired and the exposed artefacts replaced.
(18) Curling Letters, AZWHS
(19) The Red Soldier, Emery, Frank, Hodder & Stoughton, 1970
(20) The Natal Carbineers 1855-1911, Stalker, Rev. J. (ed), Davis, 1912
(21) Fight us in the Open , Laband J., Shuter and Shooter, 1985. Many authors have written that the Zulus were ordered not to cross into Natal. This corrects the myth.
(22) The Red Soldier, Emery, Frank, Hodder & Stoughton, 1970
(23) Curling Letters, AZWHS
(24) AZWHS Journal 3
(25) Running the Gauntlet, Mossop, G., Nelson, 1937
(26) A Sketch of the Kaffir and Zulu War 1880, Hallam-Parr, H., Naval & Military Press, 2004
(27) Reasons of Defeat at Isandlwana 1879, Hallam-Parr, H., Knight, Ian (ed), MI, 1986
(28) Ibid.
(29) Ibid. – account by Muziwento, a Zulu warrior
(30) Statement of Mehlokazulu when interviewed post-war by the British at Pietermaritzberg
(1) Lock & Quantrill – correspondence with author, October 2010
(2) Zulu Battle Piece, Copeland R., Collins, 1948
(3) The South Wales Borderers, Atkinson, C.T., Cambridge University Press, 1937
(4) Ibid.
(5) Telegraph and Eastern Province Standard, 28 February 1879
(6) ‘Without hesitation I would say that, on the balance of probability, he (Cooper) was the soldier – or one of the two soldiers – who made a stand with Melvill and Coghill’. Personal letter to the author, October 2010, from South African author and expert on the Anglo Zulu war, Ron Lock.
(7) The Washing of the Spears, Morris, D., Cardinal, 1964
(8) The Curling Letters of the Zulu War, Greaves, A. and Best, B., Pen & Sword Books, 2004
(9) Numerous references. Coghill wrote that he injured his knee chasing some chickens during the reconnaissance of the Mangeni Falls on 20 January. Why a staff officer would chase a chicken, even for his Commander's supper, has long stretched many a military man's imagination. What is not generally known is that Coghill suffered from a previous assegai wound to his knee sustained during high jinks in the officers' mess. Lieutenant Daly, 1/24th, had been demonstrating his dubious skill at assegai throwing and speared Coghill in the knee. Perhaps this accounts for the several descriptions of Coghill's knee injury being ‘old’.
(10) There is no special significance in Coghill's jacket being blue, other than the fact that it may have saved his life on the ride along the Fugitives' Trail. The 24th's officers had a choice of regimental jackets to wear in the field, so just as many could have been wearing blue as were wearing red. Cetshwayo had ordered the Zulus to concentrate on red-jacketed personnel in the mistaken belief that only they were the Imperial troops. The red jackets were dyed from the extract of the root of the madder plant.
(11) Major Grenville, letter to his father, 3 February 1879, AZWHS Journal 17
(12) Rorke's Drift, Glover, M., Wordsworth Military Library, 1997. If Ardendorff fought at Rorke's Drift, he was the only person to see action at both Isandlwana on the 22nd and Rorke's Drift on the 22nd and 23rd. Likewise, the Rorke's Drift lists prepared by Dunbar and Bourne make no mention of him.
(13) The Zulu War – Then and Now, Knight, Ian, Plaistow Press, 1993
(14) Ibid.
(15) AZWHS Journal 6, 1999
(16) AZWHS Journal 2, 1997
(17) The Zulu War and the 80th Regiment of Foot, Hope, R., Churnet Valley Books, 1997
(18) Account by Mehlokazulu, Natal Mercury, 27 September
(19) Richard Stevens, letter dated 27 January 1879, AZWHS Journal 17
(20) Archibald Forbes, Daily News, 10 July 1879
(1) The Harford Diaries, Payne & Payne, Ultimatum Tree, 2010
(2) Private letter in possession of the author
(3) Letter to Edward Durnford from Inspector George Mansel, KCAL 89/9/32/10
(4) Blue Books C.2242
(5) Ibid.
(6) The Sun Turned Black, Knight, Ian, Waterman, 1995
(7) Blue Books C.2242
(8) Ibid.
(9) Lord Chelmsford and the Zulu War, French, G., Unwin Brothers, 1939
(10) Curling Letters, AZWHS Journal 3, 1998
(11) Cochrane report, AZWHS unpublished papers
(12) Ibid.
(13) AZWHS Journal 4, 1998
(14) Stafford letters, AZWHS Journal 14
(15) For the full report see PRO WO 30/129 56316
(16) Memories of Forty-Eight Years Service, Smith-Dorrien, H., Murray, 1925
(17) Blue Books Essex report inquiry
(18) Memories of Forty-Eight Years Service, Smith-Dorrien, H., Murray, 1925
(19) Lord Chelmsford's Zululand Campaign, Army Records Society Vol. 10, 1994
(20) AZWHS Journal 2, 1997
(1) Sir Bartle Frere: a Footnote to the History of the British Empire, Worsfold, W.B., Butterworth, 1923. The further correspondence relates to personal letters in the official Blue Books.
(2) For a description of Cetshwayo in Parliament see Hansard Vol. CCXLIX , 14 August 1879
(3) At the request of the Duke of Sutherland, Chairman of the Stafford House South African Aid Committee, and with the approval of the military authorities, Sister Janet and six nurses set off for Zululand, most with less than 24 hours notice. On the evening of 12 February 1879, the party, under the command of Dr Stoker, departed from Paddington Station and proceeded to Dartmouth, sailing in the Dublin Castle at noon the following day.
On arrival at Durban, the nurses were appointed to various military hospitals. Due to her experience, although aged just twenty, Sister Janet was appointed to take charge of the Base Field Hospital at Utrecht that supported Sir Evelyn Wood's column. Sisters Ruth and Elizabeth were assigned to the hospital at Durban, Mary and Annette went to Pietermaritzburg and Edith and Emma to Ladysmith. Sister Janet's journey involved arduous travel in mail carts, covering the 217 miles to Utrecht in five days over badly rutted roads; in one incident the cart overturned, leaving Sister Janet with a dislocated arm and associated bruising.
At Utrecht, Sister Janet quickly settled into her role and wrote home that, ‘it was a delightful experience to nurse the English soldiers’ after her horrendous experiences in the Russo-Turkish war. She described the hospital as ‘a collection of good huts outside the laager, and a range of tents inside the walls’. She not only had the care of the base hospital but frequently had to ride out to the outlying camps to attend the wounded. On one occasion, she and her guide eluded a Zulu scouting party by hiding overnight in the bush. By 6 September the last of the wounded from Ulundi were fit enough to be transferred to Newcastle, and this ended Sister Janet's work in the field. Those moved to Newcastle included fifty wounded and sick soldiers along with four cases of typhoid.
Many of the wounded from Hlobane and some from Ulundi had passed through her care. Sister Janet also treated the few wounded Zulus who managed to reach the hospital; the most noted case was reported in the Daily Telegraph on 3 October 1879. The paper related that a wounded Zulu named ‘Pashongo’ was admitted to the care of Sister Janet having suffered serious bullet wounds to a knee. The Zulu was reported to have won the hearts of those who attended him by his cheerfulness, patience and natural manner. The Daily Telegraph quoted a memorandum from Sister Janet to Surgeon General Ross in which she observed that, ‘the Zulu had so gained the goodwill of the hospital orderlies that they would come in twenty times a day to turn and ease him and to lift him up in their arms to give him ease. Every effort was made to save his life, but it was necessary to amputate the leg and the operation was followed by blood poisoning, of which he died, a better man than many a so-called Christian’.
On 11 September 1879 Sister Janet attended the parade for the presentation by Sir Garnet Wolseley of Victoria Crosses to Major Bromhead and Private Jones of the 24th Regiment. After the parade, Sister Janet was personally complimented by the Commander-in-Chief on the manner in which she had nursed the wounded. He then requested that she accompany the Army's Sekhukhune expedition. At Landman's Drift she briefly attended Captain Hardy before he died of his wounds. The press estimated that some 3,200 soldiers passed through her hands.
In a memorandum from Surgeon Major Fitzmaurice A.M.D., Senior Medical Officer at Utrecht, to Stafford House, Sister Janet came in for special praise. He wrote, ‘Miss Wells proved herself to be a thoroughly accomplished nurse; her attention to her duties and kindness to the sick and wounded under her care has been most praiseworthy, and she carries with her on leaving this station the gratitude alike of patients and staff.’
On her arrival home, and in time for her 21st birthday, Queen Victoria insisted that she be decorated. In 1883 she received the Royal Red Cross, later known as the nurses' Victoria Cross, to complement her South Africa medal; the citation reads: ‘for special devotion and competency displayed in nursing duties with Her Majesty's troops’. The Russian government had, in the meantime, awarded her the Imperial Order of the Red Cross of Russia.
For an account of her visit to Isandlwana, see Appendix J.
For a full account of Sister Janet Wells' experiences, see Sister Janet, Best, B., Pen & Sword Books, 2005.
(4) Paper 1078/1883, Natal Archives. There are a number of reasons why the Isandlwana battlefield continues to hold its secrets. These include the dearth of artefacts, the degradation of skeletal remains due to the acidic soil and the insensitive re-interment procedures adopted by the early military burial parties. Even Boast's cairns have limited archaeological value as they cannot represent the position where men actually fell in battle. However, the 298 whitewashed cairns across the battlefield continue to have a strong visual and emotional effect on visitors. Over the years, a number of regimental and family memorials have been erected at Isandlwana; in March 1914 a memorial to the 24th was erected by the regiment. It was not until 2001 that a memorial to the Zulus was built at Isandlwana.
(5) Hansard Vol CCXLIX, 14 August 1879