Notable figures involved in the battle of Isandlwana
I British & auxiliaries
Chelmsford, General Lord
Frederic Augustus Thesiger, descended from a Saxon gentleman who emigrated to England and became secretary to an influential English statesman, was born on 31 May 1827. He succeeded to the title Lord Chelmsford on 5 October 1878. Thesiger's father, also Frederic, was a lawyer and Tory MP who became Lord High Chancellor of England and was ennobled as the first Baron Chelmsford. The first Baron married Anna Maria Tinling in 1822 and had four sons and three daughters, of whom Frederic was the eldest. His education at Eton was followed by the purchase of a commission, initially into the Rifle Brigade, and then into the Grenadier Guards. He was subsequently promoted to the rank of Captain and appointed ADC to the Commander of Forces in Ireland. In 1855 he joined his regiment in the Crimea but missed the battle of Inkerman. He ended his posting to the Crimea as Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General.
Further promotion brought him the Lieutenant Colonelcy of the 95th Regiment, and it was with his new regiment that he sailed for India in 1858. The Indian Mutiny had all but been suppressed, but the regiment was involved in mopping-up operations in Central India during 1859. As a competent staff officer, Chelmsford was appointed Deputy Adjutant General.
When General Sir Robert Napier was ordered to mount an expedition against King Theodore of Abyssinia in 1868, he chose Chelmsford to be his Deputy Adjutant General. It was a well organized and successful expedition, and the Anglo-Indian force suffered few casualties. Chelmsford emerged from the campaign with much credit, being mentioned in dispatches and made Companion of the Bath for his tireless staff work. He was also appointed ADC to the Queen and made Adjutant General of India. In 1861 he married Adria Heath, the daughter of an Indian Army General; she eventually bore him four sons. He became friendly with the Governor of Bombay, Sir Henry Bartle Frere, a man who would have considerable influence on Chelmsford's subsequent life. After sixteen years service in India, Chelmsford was recalled home. With little in the way of family wealth, the prospect of the expensive entertaining befitting an officer of his rank was a source of worry to him.
When offered the post of Deputy Adjutant General at Horse Guards, he felt obliged to decline and made known his wish to take a command again in India, where the cost of living was much lower. Instead, he was promoted to Brigadier General commanding the 1st Infantry Division at Aldershot pending a suitable overseas posting.
He accepted the first vacancy, to South Africa, and it was his first independent active service command in thirty-four years. He renewed his association with Sir Bartle Frere, now the High Commissioner for South Africa, and shared Frere's vision of a Confederation of southern African states under British control.
When Chelmsford arrived at the Cape in February 1878 the fighting against the Xhosa was entering its final stages. His subsequent experiences against a foe that relied on hit-and-run tactics rather than becoming involved in full-scale battles confirmed his low opinion of the fighting capabilities of black Africans. Chelmsford did, however, show himself to be a commander who did not shirk hard work, often riding great distances over rugged country to break remaining resistance. Although the Cape Frontier campaign left Chelmsford wary of the ability of colonial officers, he was generally held in high regard. As a tactician he had proved competent if uninspired.
With the successful conclusion of the Frontier war, Chelmsford followed Frere's political agenda in mounting the invasion of Zululand. Chelmsford had initially planned to invade with five columns, but a lack of resources forced him to reduce his force to three offensive and two defensive columns. He decided to accompany the Centre Column in person, a decision which effectively deprived its designated commander, Colonel Glyn, of a meaningful role. He also failed to address the friction which developed between his own staff and Glyn's.
Chelmsford's force invaded Zululand on 11 January 1879. On the 12th he attacked and destroyed the stronghold of Chief Sihayo kaXongo. Because of the poor state of the tracks, he delayed advancing to his next objective, Isandlwana, until the 20th. On arriving, he personally rode out to scout the Mangeni hills for signs of a Zulu presence. Although he was later criticised for not placing the camp at Isandlwana on a defensive footing, he argued that he had not intended it to be permanent and was, indeed, already planning to advance by the 22nd.
That plan was interrupted by the discovery of a Zulu decoy force near Mangeni on the evening of the 21st. Receiving the report in the early hours of the 22nd, Chelmsford split his command and moved to support his reconnaissance. Unfortunately, as a result, Chelmsford spent most of 22 January skirmishing in the hills twelve miles from Isandlwana, while the Zulus attacked and destroyed his base.
The disaster nearly crushed him. Worn down by the relentless personal attacks on him in the newspapers, he fluctuated between confidence and despair and contemplated resigning. His friends advised him to retire on health grounds but, with Wood's decisive victory at Khambula and the arrival of fresh regiments of Imperial troops, Chelmsford recovered his determination to defeat the Zulus. He personally chose to lead the column to relieve Colonel Pearson's besieged force at Eshowe. At the battle of Gingindlovu, he displayed the Victorian officer's disdain for enemy fire by remaining standing to encourage the troops, many of whom were newly arrived and raw recruits.
With Eshowe relieved, Chelmsford was able to plan a fresh invasion of Zululand which proved successful. Nevertheless, another misfortune befell this luckless commander. During a routine reconnaissance by a small patrol, which included the Prince Louis Napoleon, a group of Zulus opened fire on the party and in the scramble to safety, two troopers were killed and the Prince was caught and slain. When the news broke in the British newspapers, the shock was even greater than that of Isandlwana. Chelmsford could not be blamed for the Prince's death but, following all the previous disasters, his culpability was implied.
Sir Garnet Wolseley was sent to Zululand to supersede Chelmsford but arrived too late to prevent Chelmsford disobeying Wolseley's direct order not to attack Cetshwayo. Chelmsford inflicted a crushing defeat on the Zulus at Ulundi on 4 July, before handing over his command on a high note; he then resigned. He sailed home on the RMS German in the company of Wood and Buller, his most effective and reliable commanders.
Back in England, the military establishment rallied to his support and he enjoyed the continued confidence of the Commander-in-Chief, the Duke of Cambridge, and of Queen Victoria herself. Chelmsford was showered with honours. His rank of Lieutenant General was confirmed and the Queen used her influence to have him appointed Lieutenant of the Tower and later Gold Stick. He later became a full general and Colonel of the Sherwood Foresters, then of the 2nd Life Guards. Edward VII made the ageing general a GCVO.
On 9 April 1905, at the age of 78, Lord Chelmsford had a seizure and died while playing billiards at the United Services Club.
Clery, Cornelius Francis
Clery was born in Ireland in 1838 and educated in Dublin and at Sandhurst before joining the 32nd Regiment as an ensign in 1858. He was promoted Lieutenant in 1859 and Captain in 1866. In 1868 he entered the Staff College. He passed out in 1870 and took up a post as instructor – later professor – of tactics at Sandhurst. He served on the staffs of Ireland and Aldershot before sailing to the Cape in 1878 as a special staff officer with the rank of major. He served briefly in the Griqualand West and 1878 Sekhukhune expeditions before being appointed to the Zululand invasion force, where he took up the job of principal staff officer to Colonel Glyn of the Centre Column.
On 20 January it fell to Clery to mark out the position of the camp at Isandlwana when the column arrived there. Clery was with Glyn during the skirmishing of 22 January at Mangeni, and following the Isandlwana disaster sought to shield Glyn from attempts by Chelmsford's staff to make him a scapegoat. Following Captain Campbell's death at the battle of Hlobane on 28 March, Clery was transferred to Wood's column as staff officer and Deputy Acting Adjutant. He served with Wood's column throughout the war and was present at the battle of Ulundi on 4 July. Clery returned home in August 1879. In 1882 he served in the Egyptian campaign as Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General, and in 1884 he served in the Sudan under General Sir Gerald Graham as a Brigade Major in the fighting against the Mahdists around the Red Sea port of Suakin.
Clery received the CB for his Sudanese service and was promoted Brigadier General. He remained in Egypt until 1887, when he returned to England as Commandant of the Staff College. He was promoted to Major General in 1894 and given command of a brigade in Aldershot. With the outbreak of the Second Anglo-Boer War in 1899 he was sent to South Africa in command of a division with the rank of Lieutenant General but, by now elderly, allowed his strategy to be dictated by Buller, with disastrous results at Colenso on 15 December 1899, from which Clery's reputation suffered. He left southern Africa in October 1900 with a KCMG but retired from the army in February 1901. He died in 1926.
Curling, Henry Thomas
Henry Thomas Curling was born at Ramsgate on 27 July 1847. He was educated at Marlborough before entering the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich at the age of seventeen. Despite being short-sighted, he was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1868. He was sent to South Africa in 1878 with N Battery, 5th Brigade. On 22 January 1879 Curling remained behind at Isandlwana camp with the guns while Lord Chelmsford and half of the No. 3 Column marched to Mangeni to meet the Zulu army, which Chelmsford wrongly believed to be approaching Mangeni. Curling was on the front line when the main Zulu army attacked the camp and supervised the firing of the guns until the Zulus overran their position. He ordered the withdrawal of the guns back to the camp, but although the horse-drawn guns reached the camp it was now in possession of the Zulus. The two gun-teams ploughed through the Zulus, losing many men to the stabbing masses, and emerged on the far side of camp, only for the guns to crash and overturn among the rocks. The Zulus fell on the surviving artillerymen, but being mounted Curling managed to escape.
He wrote a dramatic report, which was ignored by the official enquiry on the grounds that it contained ‘nothing of value’. In fact, his harrowing account is very detailed and describes exactly what happened. It is the sole account from a front-line survivor (see Appendix H).
After the Zulu War, Curling was promoted to Captain, sent to Afghanistan and stationed at Kabul with C/3 Battery. His new wife then died of fever, he returned to England after three years without leave, and was promoted Major at Aldershot. In 1895 he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and appointed CO of the RA in Egypt. He retired as a Colonel in 1902 and died a widower at Ramsgate on New Year's Day 1910. His numerous friends only learned of his Isandlwana exploit after his death.
Durnford, Anthony William
Durnford was born on 24 May 1830 at Manor Hamilton in the county of Leitrim, Ireland. He was educated in Dusseldorf and entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich in July 1846. A member of the Durnford family had served in the Corps of Royal Engineers since 1759, and Durnford's younger brothers, Edward and Arthur, both joined the Corps. Durnford obtained a commission in the Engineers as a 2nd lieutenant in 1848. He served in Chatham and Scotland before being posted to Ceylon in 1851. In 1854 he married Frances Tranchell, but the marriage was not destined to be happy. Although they had a daughter, Frances, to whom Durnford was devoted, they lost several children in infancy and the marriage soured. Durnford took to gambling and the couple later separated but never divorced. Durnford remained in Ceylon until 1856 when he was posted to Malta. In 1858 he returned to England. He was in Gibraltar between 1860 and 1864, when he was sent to China, but he collapsed with heat apoplexy on the way, broke his journey in Ceylon and returned to England. In 1871 he accepted a post at the Cape.
He was briefly employed on the Cape Frontier but was then sent to Natal. He arrived in time to join Theophilus Shepstone's expedition to ‘crown’ King Cetshwayo in August 1873. Durnford returned hugely impressed by what he had seen and by the Zulu people. About this time he established a friendly relationship with Bishop Colenso, the Bishop of Natal. Like Colenso he admired and respected the Zulu people, although he was too much a believer in military duty to question British policies in the region. Shortly after his return, Durnford was appointed chief of staff to Lieutenant Colonel Milles, the officer commanding British troops in Natal, who was about to embark on military action against the ‘rebellious’ inkosi Langalibalele kaMthimkhulu of the amaHlubi people. Langalibalele's followers had fallen foul of the colonial authorities because their migrant labourers had received guns as payment from Kimberley diamond-diggers. Langalibalele had been ordered to surrender the arms but procrastinated and, on seeing colonial troops mustering for Cetshwayo's coronation expedition, assumed he was about to be attacked and fled to the Drakensberg mountain passes in the hope of escaping to Basutoland. Durnford was given command of a detachment of colonial troops and ordered, quite literally, to cut Langalibalele off at the pass. Durnford's party got lost; ascending a particularly steep and grassy slope, Durnford's horse Chieftain lost its footing and he fell fifty yards down the slope. When his men reached him they found he had dislocated his left shoulder and badly cut his head. He insisted on continuing, and the party eventually reached the summit of the mountains. Here they rode on until they encountered the amaHlubi working their way up from below. Durnford had been ordered not to fire the first shot if possible. One of the amaHlubi fired a shot and fighting ensued. Three of the colonial troopers were killed and the survivors retreated in disarray; Langalibalele and the majority of the amaHlubi escaped into Basutoland.
The incident left deep physical and psychological scars on Durnford. His left arm did not heal and was useless thereafter; he wore it thrust Napoleonlike into the front of his tunic. Colonial society held him to blame for the deaths of the troopers through his reluctance to open fire; he was mocked as ‘Don't Fire Durnford’. Despite his marriage, he formed a relationship with Colenso's daughter Frances.
In 1876 Durnford returned to England but he was back in Natal a year later. In 1878, as the colony's senior Royal Engineer, he served on the Boundary Commission set up by Sir Henry Bulwer to investigate the disputed border between the Transvaal and Zulu kingdom; the commission found largely in favour of the Zulu claims. With the political crisis accelerating, Durnford was asked by Lord Chelmsford to plan the formation of an African auxiliary force to support the British invasion. In November 1878 this became the Natal Native Contingent. Durnford was given command of No. 2 Column, which was composed almost entirely of auxiliary troops. He took unusual pains to secure good calibre officers, who trained his men as efficiently as possible.
Durnford's column was placed on the high escarpment above the Middle Drift overlooking the Thukela River. It was a supporting role, to guard against Zulu attacks on that stretch of the border, or to advance in concert with the main invading columns as needed. On 14 January, three days after the war began, Durnford, acting on local information, decided to take his column down to the Middle Drift, an action that provoked a sharp rebuke from Chelmsford. Probably as a result of this, on the 16th Chelmsford ordered Durnford to move closer to the Centre Column. On the 20th, when Chelmsford moved the Centre Column forward to Isandlwana, Durnford was ordered to Rorke's Drift. When, early on the morning of the 22nd, Chelmsford decided to advance again to reinforce his detachments at Mangeni, he ordered – almost as an afterthought – Durnford forward to Isandlwana.
Durnford's actions at Isandlwana are well known and have remained controversial. Chelmsford's staff openly blamed Durnford for the defeat, stressing that he had failed to take responsibility for the camp and that his movements had prevented a more realistic defensive procedure. When Durnford's body was found on the battlefield on 21 May 1879 the orders found on it from Chelmsford included no explicit instruction to take command of the camp. Durnford's death undoubtedly made him an easy scapegoat for the wider failings of the defeat.
In October 1879 Durnford's body was exhumed at Bishop Colenso's instigation and removed to Pietermaritzburg where it was re-interred in the military cemetery at Fort Napier.
Essex, Edward
Edward Essex was born on 13 November 1847 in Camden Town, London. He entered Sandhurst in February 1866 and passed out third in his class, a position which entitled him to become an ensign without purchase. In March 1867 he was appointed to the 75th Regiment. His early career was spent in peacetime postings in Gibraltar and Hong Kong, where he was appointed Adjutant. In May 1871 he purchased a captain's commission within his regiment – one of the last officers in the British army to do so. Upon completion of a two-year course at the Staff College he was appointed Instructor of Musketry to the Manchester garrison, but volunteered for special duties in the prelude to the Zulu campaign. On 31 October 1878 he sailed for Natal. On his arrival he was appointed Director of Transport to No. 3 Column.
On 20 January the column moved forward to Isandlwana which left Captain Essex without any particular duties to perform. On the 22nd he was writing letters in his tent when the sound of distant gunfire heralded the approach of the Zulu army; Essex joined the 24th companies deployed on the ridges overlooking the camp and helped direct their fire. After an extended period of firing he returned to the camp to ensure a supply of reserve ammunition was brought forward. He found that his junior, Smith-Dorrien, had already been rebuffed by the Quartermaster in charge of the nearest supply, Bloomfeld of the 2/24th. Bloomfield was concerned about Chelmsford's order that the 2nd Battalion reserve be kept ready for dispatch to Mangeni should it be needed. Essex confirmed that he overruled Bloomfield's objections and sent a considerable quantity of ammunition to the firing lines as the Zulus broke through.
He joined the general rout towards the border and, after a typically fraught escape, crossed the river at Sothondose's Drift. He attempted to rally the survivors on the Natal bank, but most were too exhausted and traumatised to obey him. Instead, they rode together to Helpmekaar, where Essex attempted to place the post on a defensive footing in expectation of a Zulu attack.
Essex left Natal for England with the rank of Brevet Major in early 1880. Between 1883 and 1885 he was Instructor of Musketry and Topography at Sandhurst. In May 1886 he rejoined his regiment with the rank of Brevet Lieutenant Colonel. He retired in June 1892 with the rank of Colonel Commanding the 2nd Battalion Gordon Highlanders. He was to enjoy a long retirement – ‘lucky’ to the end – and died on 10 September 1939 in Bournemouth at the age of 91.
Gardner, Alan Coulston
Alan Gardner was born in 1846 and entered the army as a cavalry officer, serving first in the 11th and then in the 14th Hussars. He passed out of the Staff College in 1872 and volunteered as a special service officer for the Zulu campaign, where he was a staff officer to Colonel Glyn's No. 3 column. On 22 January he had accompanied Glyn under Lord Chelmsford's command to the hills at the head of the Mangeni Valley, some ten miles from the camp at Isandlwana. After indecisive skirmishing during the morning Chelmsford decided to order the remainder of the column to advance to join him, and Glyn sent Gardner back to Isandlwana with the order. Gardner arrived, however, just as reports reached the camp commander, Lieutenant Colonel Pulleine, that detachments of Durnford's force had discovered the Zulu army beyond the iNyoni heights. At first Pulleine seemed uncertain how to react, until Gardner assured him that Chelmsford knew nothing of these developments. Gardner himself seems to have assisted in directing the movements of some of the mounted men during the battle.
When the British position collapsed he made his escape, crossing the Mzinyathi at Sothondose's Drift, where he met Captain Essex and Lieutenant Cochrane. The three held a brief discussion and Gardner scribbled a hasty note of warning to the garrison at Rorke's Drift, before all three rode to Helpmekaar. Gardner rode on to Dundee to warn Wood's column of the disaster. At Dundee he found a volunteer to take his message to Utrecht. Later, Gardner's actions earned him the appreciation of his senior officers, but an unfounded rumour that he might be rewarded with the Victoria Cross provoked a reaction among his colleagues who composed a ditty satirising his exertions – ‘I very much fear, that the Zulus are near, so hang it, I'm off to Dundee’.
When Chelmsford reorganised his forces after Isandlwana, Gardner was transferred as a staff officer to Colonel Wood. Gardner accompanied Buller's detachment during the assault on Hlobane Mountain on 28 March, when Buller mentioned Gardner in dispatches. He survived the disaster and took part in the battle of Khambula the following day, where he was wounded. After the war, Gardner returned to Britain to take up a post as ADC to Lord Cowper, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. In 1885 he married Norah Blyth, and the couple had two sons and two daughters. Gardner developed a strong interest in big game hunting, travelling to India, Assam, Africa, North America and Australasia to shoot a representative cross-section of indigenous wildlife; his wife often accompanied him, ‘herself shooting many wild animals’.
On retirement from the army, Gardner became a JP and took an interest in politics. In 1895 he contested the East Marylebone constituency on behalf of the Liberals and in 1906 was elected for the Ross Division of Herefordshire. In the winter of 1907 he began to suffer from poor health and took a holiday in Gibraltar to recuperate. There he suddenly succumbed to pneumonia and died in Algeciras on Christmas Day at the age of 62.
Glyn, Richard Thomas
Born 23 December 1831 in Meerut, India, Glyn was the only son of R.C. Glyn, an officer in the Honourable East India Company. On returning to England he became an expert horseman and fanatical fox hunter. Despite his short stature – he was just 5ft 2in – Glyn was physically strong and keen to pursue a military career. When he was nineteen his father purchased him a commission into the 82nd (Prince of Wales's Volunteers) Regiment, later the 2nd South Lancashires. After several years of duty in Ireland, Glyn and his regiment were sent to the Crimea and arrived on 2 September 1855, just six days before the fall of Sebastopol. In 1856 Glyn married Anne Clements, the daughter of the former Colonel of the Royal Canadian Rifles. Their honeymoon was cut short when Glyn's regiment was rushed to India to cope with the crisis of the Mutiny. The 82nd was part of Sir Colin Campbell's force that relieved the besieged city of Lucknow in mid-November 1857 and subsequently suffered in the fighting around Kanpur. Glyn was then promoted to captain and gained experience in the brutal suppression of the Mutiny.
He purchased his majority in 1861 and in 1867 he purchased the lieutenant colonelcy of the 1/24th Regiment, then stationed at Malta. In 1872 the regiment was transferred to Gibraltar, where Glyn was promoted to full colonel. At the end of November 1875 the Glyns and most of the 1/24th embarked on HM Troopship Simoon for Cape Town.
In 1876 the 1/24th was ordered to the diamond diggings at Kimberley to counter unrest among the diggers. The march to Kimberley took two months to cover the seven hundred miles. When they arrived, they found that their presence was enough to stifle the rebellion and there was little more to do than march all the way back to the Cape.
With the outbreak of the 9th Cape Frontier War in 1877 the 1/24th were ordered to the Transkei. Glyn was appointed Commander in the Transkei with the rank of Colonel of the Staff and Brevet Brigadier General. He received high praise from both the Duke of Cambridge and Sir Bartle Frere and, in a more tangible sign of gratitude, was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath. In 1878 the 1/24th was ordered to Pietermaritzburg in Natal in preparation for the invasion of Zululand. On 30 November and to the accompaniment of the band, Glyn led his regiment out of Pietermaritzburg towards the desolate post of Helpmekaar to join the No. 3 Column. He was appointed Column commander, although his authority was undermined by Lord Chelmsford's decision to accompany the column in person.
Throughout the campaign, Chelmsford treated Glyn with an air of impatience, although on the 12th Glyn was nominally in command of the successful assault on Sihayo's homestead. Following the encounter with Zulu forces at the head of the Mangeni gorge on the evening of the 21st, Chelmsford decided to advance at once and again offered Glyn nominal command of the force. Yet the main Zulu army was not where Chelmsford anticipated, and Isandlwana camp was meanwhile destroyed; that night, Chelmsford, Glyn and their men returned to the devastated battlefield at Isandlwana. Glyn, in a state of shock at the loss of his regiment, was left to return to fortify Rorke's Drift.
When the Prince Imperial was killed Glyn was appointed to the Court Martial which tried the surviving officer, Lieutenant J.B. Carey. Glyn was present inside the Ulundi square during the battle on 4 July. For the 24th the war was over, and they began the long march back to Pietermaritzburg, where the Glyns were reunited. Glyn had the pleasant duty of presenting theVictoria Cross to Surgeon Major James Reynolds (Rorke's Drift) and Lieutenant Edward Browne 1/24th (Khambula).
In 1882 Glyn was promoted to Major General and appointed KCB, retiring as a Lieutenant General. In 1898 he was appointed Colonel of the South Wales Borderers. It was in this capacity that he saw off his Regiment as they went to South Africa again, this time to fight the Boers. Within a few months of their departure he died, on 21 November 1900, and was buried in the family grave at Ewell, Surrey.
Griffiths, William
Griffiths was born in Roscommon, Ireland, in 1841 and enlisted in the Army at Warwick on 16 April 1859. In 1867 he was serving in the 2/24th, a party of which had been sent to the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal to investigate the fate of sailors who were feared murdered by islanders. A detachment of soldiers was put ashore and promptly attacked. They were stranded on the beach, and several attempts to evacuate them failed due to the heavy surf. In the end they were saved thanks to the determined effort of a surgeon and four men of the 24th who took a boat through the surf at great personal risk. All five were awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry (an unusual award since they were not actually engaged with the enemy at the time). Among them was Private Griffiths. He continued to serve with the battalion and was in the camp at Isandlwana on picquet duty when the rest of the battalion marched to Mangeni under Lord Chelmsford. Griffiths was killed during the Zulu attack later that day; no details of his death have survived. His VC was acquired by the regiment at auction in the 1890s, having apparently been found on the battlefield.
Harford, Henry Charles
Harford was born in 1850. His father, Captain Charles Joseph Harford, was a Captain in the 12th Lancers. In 1864 Captain Harford bought a tobacco estate at Pinetown in Natal and the family emigrated to southern Africa. Here Henry Harford spent a happy and adventurous boyhood, learned to ride and shoot, and discovered an interest in the natural world that would last throughout his life.
In 1870 the Harford family began to break up. Henry returned to England to join the Army as an ensign in the 99th Regiment. His early years were spent on garrison duty in Ireland, but in 1877 the Regiment was posted to Chatham, and Harford accepted the post of Adjutant. In late 1878 the War Office requested volunteers for special service posts in Natal in preparation for the invasion of Zululand. Having spent his youth in Natal, and having knowledge of the Zulu language, Harford applied.
His application was accepted, and he arrived in Durban on 2 December 1878, to be given the post of Staff Officer to the 3rd Regiment, Natal Native Contingent, assembling at Sandspruit, near Helpmekaar, on the Mzinyathi border. Harford joined the regiment a few weeks before the invasion began. On 11 January he led the 2nd Battalion across the river border by a previously unknown drift upstream from Rorke's Drift. The following day (12 January 1879) Harford accompanied the 2nd Battalion in the attack on Sihayo's stronghold. Harford noticed that the NNC were suffering heavily from a group of Zulu snipers concealed in a cave further up the slope. He decided to clear them out, climbing up through the boulders and the corpses of Zulus killed in the fighting, a deed which earned him a commendation and the offer of the Victoria Cross – which he declined out of modesty. A similar deed accomplished by two of Evelyn Wood's staff at Hlobane on 28 March resulted in the award of two Victoria Crosses.
At dawn on the 21st Harford accompanied the sweep under Major Dartnell of the Isipezi heights. On the evening of the 22nd the 3rd NNC returned with Chelmsford's force to find the camp at Isandlwana devastated.
The following morning, Chelmsford's command returned to Rorke's Drift. The men of the 3rd NNC were disbanded, but the officers, including Harford, remained at the ruined mission for several months; Harford spent his time between Helpmekaar and Rorke's Drift and he was given custody of both Captain Stephenson and Lieutenant Higginson, who were placed under arrest following desertion on the day of the battle.
On 4 February a group of NNC officers, including Harford and led by Major Wilsone Black, 24th, rode as far as Sothondose's (Fugitives') Drift, and found the lost Colour and bodies of Lieutenants Melvill and Coghill, killed during the rout after Isandlwana. Harford carried the Colour back to Rorke's Drift in triumph.
In April Harford rejoined the 99th Regiment, which, following the relief of Eshowe had returned to the Thukela camp. Harford was present when King Cetshwayo was captured by Major Marter's patrol, and Harford was given custody of the king during his journey into exile at Capetown.
Harford remained with the 99th Regiment, serving in Malta and India. He rose to the rank of Colonel, and at various times commanded both battalions, but saw no further active service, being deemed by a medical board to be both physically and mentally unfit for active command. In 1907 he was made a Commander of the Order of the Bath. He retired to Sussex and died on 25 March 1937.
Melvill, Teignmouth
Melvill was born in London on 8 September 1842, and educated at Harrow, Cheltenham and Cambridge; he graduated in 1865, the year he joined the Army. He was gazetted as a lieutenant in the 1st Battalion, 24th Regiment in December 1868. He served with the battalion in Ireland, Malta and Gibraltar and, from January 1875, at the Cape. In February 1876 he married Sarah Elizabeth Reed and the couple had two sons. He was appointed adjutant of the battalion and served in the opening stages of the 9th Cape Frontier War. In 1878 he had returned to England to take up a place at the Staff College but, hearing of a fresh outbreak of trouble on the Frontier, offered to return to Africa, where he served throughout the later phase of the Gaika war.
At the end of 1878 the 1st Battalion was attached to the No. 3 or Centre Column which assembled at Helpmekaar on the Biggarsberg heights and crossed into Zululand at Rorke's Drift on 22 January 1879. Melvill was present with the battalion in the camp at Isandlwana when it was attacked on the 22nd; he is known to have ridden about the field delivering orders from the senior officer of the battalion, Colonel Pulleine. Contrary to popular belief, there is no evidence that Melvill was ordered by Pulleine to save the Queen's Colour.
Melvill rode out of the camp with the cased Colour across his saddle. Somewhere on the heights above the Mzinyathi River he met Lieutenant Coghill of the same battalion, and the two attempted to ford the flooded river at Sothondose's (later Fugitives') Drift. Coghill crossed safely but Melvill was unhorsed and, still clutching the Colour, clung to a rock in mid-stream where an NNC officer, Lieutenant Higginson, joined him. Coghill saw their plight and returned to the water; as he did so, his horse was hit by a Zulu bullet. Melvill, Coghill and Higginson succeeded in helping each other across the river, but the Colour was lost in the process. The three officers struggled up the steep slopes on the Natal bank until Higginson left them to look for horses; a few minutes later Melvill and Coghill were overtaken and killed.
The ‘dash with the Colours’ caught the public attention in Britain as being one of the most dramatic and heroic acts from the battle, but both Melvill and Coghill were refused the VC. Melvill's widow, Sarah, and Coghill's father petitioned repeatedly on their behalf, and in 1907 the rules regarding the award of the VC were changed. Among the first batch of posthumous VCs awarded retrospectively were decorations to Melvill and Coghill.
Milne, Archibald Berkeley
Milne was born on 2 June 1855, the second son of Alexander Milne CB who was twice First Sea Lord of the Admiralty. He was educated at Wellington College and followed his father into the Navy. In 1878, serving as a lieutenant on HMS Active, he was part of a Naval Brigade put ashore to assist in the invasion of Zululand. Milne was attached to Lord Chelmsford's staff as an ADC, served with the staff throughout the war and was present with Lord Chelmsford during the sweeps through the hills above the Mangeni gorge on 22 January. At one point, shortly after midday, Lord Chelmsford ordered Milne to climb a hillside and look back at the camp at Isandlwana through his powerful naval telescope. Since Chelmsford was at that point between the Magogo and Silutshana hills, Milne climbed the northern flank of Magogo. Looking towards Isandlwana, his view of the iNyoni ridge – from which the Zulu attack developed – was blocked by an intervening shoulder of Silutshana; although he could plainly see the tents, shimmering in the haze, he could see no sign of a battle, and his report reassured Lord Chelmsford that nothing unusual was happening at the camp. At the battle of Ulundi he was slightly wounded by a Zulu bullet while riding beside Chelmsford inside the British square.
Milne later served on the staff of no fewer than four kings, from EdwardVII to George VI. In 1905 he was appointed second-in-command of the Atlantic Fleet and in 1912 Commander of the Mediterranean Fleet, with the rank of Admiral. In 1914, on the outbreak of war in Europe, he prevented two German warships, the Goeben and Breslau, from passing through the Dardanelles en route to Turkey. He died on 5 July 1938 at the age of 83.
Pulleine, Henry Burmester
Pulleine was the eldest son of the Rev. Robert Pulleine, rector of Kirkby Wiske, near Thirsk, Yorkshire, and his wife Susan, nee Burmester. He was born at Spennithorne, Yorkshire on 12 December 1838, and was educated at Marlborough College and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. On 16 November 1855 he was gazetted to an ensigncy, without purchase, in the 30th Regiment, in which he served in Ireland. In June 1858 he was appointed as a lieutenant into the 2nd Battalion 24th Regiment (then being raised), and served at Sheffield, at Aldershot, and in Mauritius, where he became a captain by purchase in 1860. In 1866 he married Frances Bell, and the couple had a son and two daughters. He served in Rangoon and Secunderbad and in 1871 transferred into the 1st Battalion as a major by purchase. During his time in the 2nd Battalion he had been highly regarded as an efficient administrator and commissariat officer. He served for three years with the 1st Battalion in Gibraltar and in January 1875 accompanied it to the Cape. In 1877 he was promoted lieutenant colonel.
When the 9th Cape Frontier War broke out, Pulleine was instructed by General Sir Arthur Cunynghame to raise two irregular units, an infantry body known as Pulleine's Rangers and a mounted unit subsequently known as the Frontier Light Horse. He served with the 1/24th in the Transkei for nearly three months, and then, in September 1878, in view of the impending hostilities with the Zulus, returned to embark for Natal; here he was appointed to the command of the city of Durban and then as commandant of Pietermaritzburg. With the invasion imminent, he asked to be allowed to rejoin his regiment and set off in high spirits, riding with his groom and a packhorse, and succeeded on 17 January in reaching the Centre Column, which was then camped on the Zulu river bank at Rorke's Drift. When Chelmsford marched out of the camp at Isandlwana before dawn on 22 January he left Pulleine in charge. When Brevet Colonel Durnford arrived in the camp at about 10.30 that morning he outranked Pulleine, but in the absence of any orders from Chelmsford to the contrary Durnford decided to retain his independence of command. Pulleine was killed during the final stages of the battle.
Russell, Francis Broadfoot
Francis Russell, the eldest son of Lieutenant Colonel F. Russell of the Madras Infantry, was born in India on 4 September 1842. He entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich in 1861, graduated in 1865 and took up a commission in the Royal Artillery. He served in Malta, Canada, India and Aden before being promoted Captain in 1877. He was then attached to 11 Battery, 7th Brigade, which was based in Pietermaritzburg. In November 1878 he was promoted Brevet Major. As Lord Chelmsford assembled his forces for the invasion of Zululand, Russell was attached to Colonel Pearson's staff. At short notice, he was ordered to organise a rocket battery that was added to Colonel Durnford's column. Russell's battery – three rocket troughs carried on mules – joined Durnford's command at Middle Drift at the end of December. With the forward movement of the Centre Column, Durnford was ordered to Rorke's Drift in support, and he took with him Russell's battery. On 22 January Durnford was again ordered forward, this time to Isandlwana. On hearing of Zulu movements close to the camp, he decided to continue his advance to ensure that the heights overlooking the camp were clear of Zulus. Russell's battery was intended to accompany them but they were escorted by auxiliaries on foot and soon fell behind. About three miles from the camp they were alerted to the sound of firing out of sight on the high ground. Russell rode up the escarpment to investigate and returned ordering his men to deploy for action. The rocket apparatus was set up on a knoll at the foot of the escarpment. A rocket was fired as the first Zulus appeared over the skyline, but the Zulu attack developed rapidly, the warriors emerging suddenly from a donga close by to fire a volley. Russell was killed by the first shots, but there is no report that his body was ever subsequently located or buried.
Wells, Janet
Wells was born in 1859 in Maida Vale, London. In November 1876, aged seventeen, she entered the fledgling profession of nursing and joined the Training School of the Evangelical Protestant Deaconesses' Institution and Training Hospital as a trainee nurse. She was sent to the Balkans to assist the Russian army medical teams in the 1877/8 Balkan War and was decorated with the Imperial Red Cross of Russia. In 1879 she volunteered for service in Zululand and was one of six civilian nurses provided by the Stafford House Committee and sent to Natal to tend the British sick and wounded. She travelled from Durban to Utrecht – over 200 miles – in a post cart. In her first three months at Utrecht she treated over 3,200 patients, both British soldiers and Zulus, including men injured in the battles of Hlobane, Khambula and Ulundi. She performed numerous operations, cared for the sick and wounded and brought an air of discipline, tempered by her charm and femininity, to a chaotic and desperate situation. Towards the end of the war she was sent to Rorke's Drift, where she ministered to the remaining garrison. She walked the battlefields of Rorke's Drift and Isandlwana where she collected flowers for her scrapbooks, which survive to this day. She later visited – and treated – the captive King Cetshwayo in Cape Town. After the war she returned to her home and family in London, just in time for her twentieth birthday. In 1880 she met George King, an up-and-coming young London journalist who was soon to become the distinguished editor of the Globe magazine. They married on 6 May 1882 and had two daughters, Elsie and Daisy. Queen Victoria decorated Janet with the Royal Red Cross, then known as ‘the nursing Victoria Cross’. In 1901 she was invited to the Queen's state funeral. She died of cancer at Purley in Surrey on 6 June 1911.
Smith-Dorrien, Horace
Horace Smith-Dorrien rose to the rank of General in the First World War when he commanded the II Corps during their retreat from Mons. He died in a car crash near Bath in 1930.
Hamilton Browne, George
George Hamilton Browne (the name was not hyphenated in early official documents, though it has often been written as such) remains one of the most intriguing and controversial characters to emerge from the Anglo-Zulu War. He was by nature an adventurer, and a garrulous one at that, whose own stories are the principal cause of the confusion that still surrounds his life and career.
He was born on 22 December 1844 in Cheltenham, the son of Major George Browne of the 35th Regiment and his wife Susannah. The Browne family seat was Comber House in Co. Londonderry, and George was one of nine children. He was given a public school education, but by his own account his best efforts were given ‘to the play-ground and gymnasium’. He remained athletic in later life and took a keen interest in boxing.
Hamilton Browne's youth was characterised by a romantic penchant for duelling and dramatic entanglements with women that, between them, prevented his gaining entry to the Royal Military College at Woolwich. Instead, he ran away to join the Royal Horse Artillery as a driver, but was discovered by a relative and discharged as under-age. There followed a duel over a lady and a rapid flight across the Channel, which resulted in enlistment in the Papal Zouaves – his first taste of an essentially mercenary lifestyle – and some action in the Italian War of Unification.
In January 1866 Browne arrived in New Zealand, which was at that time coming to the end of several decades of bitter warfare between European settlers and the indigenous Maori over the question of land ownership. He later wrote a book about that period – With the Lost Legion in New Zealand (1911).
Browne seems to have left New Zealand about 1870. He probably fought Bushrangers for a spell in Australia – where he was wounded – and might perhaps have served on the American frontier in the Indian wars. A year or two later he was back in New Zealand, serving in the Armed Constabulary until he was discharged at his own request in 1875.
At the beginning of 1878 he arrived in southern Africa. Here he met a number of former acquaintances among the 1/24th Regiment, then serving on the Cape Frontier, and volunteered as an officer in Pulleine's Rangers, an irregular unit formed by Colonel Henry Pulleine, 1/24th. At the end of 1878, with the 24th joining the troops assembling on the Zulu border, Browne again volunteered, this time securing the rank of Major in the 1st Battalion, 3rd Regiment, Natal Native Contingent.
A second book about his experiences, A Lost Legionary in South Africa (1913), was originally to be published under a pseudonym – but he wisely decided to use his own name, aware, no doubt, of the controversy his earlier book had caused in New Zealand. Fortunately, his part in the Zulu campaign is well documented and supported by a wide variety of official reports, private diaries and correspondence.
Browne was present at the crossing of the Centre Column into Zululand at Rorke's Drift on 11 January 1879 and he was in the thick of the action at Sihayo's homestead on the 12th. Here he led several companies from his battalion into the centre of the Zulu position among the rocks at the foot of the Ngedla cliffs, only to find that most of his men had fled before they reached the Zulus. On 21 January his battalion was appointed to sweep through the Malakatha and Hlazakazi range. His men were engaged in clearing Zulus from the Magogo and Silutshana hills on the 22nd when they were ordered to return to the camp at Isandlwana to assist in packing up for a general column advance.
Browne's men approached to within three miles of the camp before realising that it was under attack. They then took up a position on a commanding ridge on the left of the road, and Browne's description of the destruction of the British camp remains one of the most chilling accounts to emerge from the war.
In the aftermath of Isandlwana Browne remained at Rorke's Drift, making occasional forays across the border to skirmish there. He then served with Lord Chelmsford's expedition to relieve the besieged garrison at Eshowe, and was present at the battle of Gingindlovu on 2nd April. Sent back to the Cape with a party of irregulars due to be discharged, Browne was badly injured when he was crushed between a mule and its shipboard stall.
He served in the BaSotho ‘Gun War’ of 1880, and in Sir Charles Warren's Bechuanaland expedition of 1884. In 1885 he was appointed Adjutant of the Diamond Fields Horse. In 1888 he served briefly in Zululand again, during the Dinuzulu rebellion, where he met Robert Baden-Powell.
In 1890 he joined the British South Africa Company's Pioneer expedition to occupy Mashonaland (Zimbabwe), the beginning of several years' involvement in ‘Rhodesian’ affairs. He served under Major Forbes in the war against the amaNdebele (‘Matabele’) in 1893 and in 1896 commanded volunteers under Baden-Powell during the Rebellion.
Browne seems to have remained in Rhodesia throughout the Second Boer War, before returning to the Cape. He had apparently lost most of his investments in the epidemics of cattle disease that swept through southern Africa at the end of the nineteenth century. At the Cape, there was worse to come; his wife Dolphina died in May 1904. This ushered in a new period of hardship for Browne, who appealed to the British Government for a pension, but was refused. About this time he seems to have sold his campaign medals, which perhaps explains why of those he wore in later life – now in a private collection – only his BSA Co. was as officially issued. Indeed, the official status of his medals is curious as he was refused the South Africa Campaign Medal for having ordered the slaughter of injured and captive Zulus at Rorke's Drift after the battle. Later reduced to poverty, he sought assistance from the Salvation Army. In 1909 his luck turned when he married Sarah Wilkerson, a lady of independent means.
George Hamilton Browne died in Jamaica in February 1916.
Dartnell, John George
Dartnell was born in 1837 in Ontario, Canada, where his father, George Russell Dartnell, was Inspector-General of Military Hospitals. In 1855 Dartnell purchased a commission as an ensign in the 86th Regiment, and was serving with them in 1857 when the Indian Mutiny broke out. The Regiment was heavily involved in operations in Central India under Sir Hugh Rose, and Dartnell himself was badly wounded in the storming of the rebel stronghold at Jhansi. He was recommended for the Victoria Cross but not awarded it, although he was personally commended by Rose.
After the Mutiny Dartnell remained in India, transferring first to the 16th Regiment and later to the 27th. He also took part in the Bhutan expedition of 1865 as an ADC to the commanding officer. In 1865 he married Clara Steer, daughter of a Judge of the Supreme Court of Calcutta.
In 1869 Dartnell sold his commission and retired from the Army with the rank of Brevet Major. He decided to try his hand at farming in the colonies, and bought a farm in Natal. Following the rebellion of Langalibalele in 1873, the Natal authorities decided to establish a regular force to police the colony, and Dartnell applied for the job. He was appointed largely on the strength of his extensive military experience, and the outcome was the Natal Mounted Police, which, although not strictly a military body, was then the only full-time professional armed unit maintained by the Natal administration. Dartnell emerged as a popular leader and a prominent voice on military matters within colonial society.
In November 1878 both the Police and various Volunteer corps were mobilised, and Dartnell with them. The Police were attached to the No. 3 Column assembling at Helpmekaar, together with a number of Volunteer units. On 21 January Dartnell was given command of the extended foray through the Malakatha and Hlazakazi hills that heralded Chelmsford's intended forward move from Isandlwana. Once they reached the hills, Dartnell's command divided, the NNC sweeping round the high bastion of Malakatha hill and working up the hot, thorny valleys beyond, towards the Mangeni gorge at the far end of the range. They had not gone far when a line of warriors appeared on a crest above them. Dartnell at once withdrew, as did the Zulus.
It was now late evening, and Dartnell was faced with a dilemma. Chelmsford expected him to return to Isandlwana, but the reconnaissance had so far learned little of the Zulu movements beyond their presence, so word of Dartnell's discovery was sent to Chelmsford with a request for assistance. This was a reasonable decision under the circumstances, but it was to have serious repercussions on the conduct of the Isandlwana campaign. Chelmsford received the report early on the morning of the 22nd and decided to split his force, hurrying out before dawn with a column to reinforce Dartnell in the hope of catching the Zulu army by surprise. While he did so, the main Zulu army fell upon and destroyed the camp at Isandlwana.
With the end of the Anglo-Zulu War, Dartnell returned to his role as Natal's senior military officer. With the outbreak of the BaSotho ‘Gun War’ in 1880, Dartnell led detachments of Police into the Drakensberg foothills, patrolling the passes – sometimes in atrocious weather – to ensure that the Sotho made no raids into Natal. At the end of the year, with the outbreak of the Boer rebellion in the Transvaal, Dartnell and the Police were attached to the troops assembled by General Sir George Colley in Natal.
In May 1881 Dartnell was appointed a Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George by Queen Victoria. In 1894 Natal's police forces were reorganised, and Dartnell was appointed Chief Commissioner. With the outbreak of the Second Boer War in 1899, Dartnell's local knowledge was greatly in demand, and he was appointed to the staff of the GOC Natal.
In 1903 Major General Dartnell retired from Natal service. He returned to England with the intention of enjoying his pension. When the poll tax disturbances in Natal threatened to break into open violence in early 1906, Dartnell again offered his services. Sponsored by a Natal newspaper, he returned to Africa bringing with him a consignment of newly invented Rexer light machine-guns.
Finally, Dartnell again retired to England and settled in Folkestone, where he died on 7 August 1913 at the age of 75.
Nkambule, Simeon
Simeon Nkambule (often spelt Kambule) was the son of Elijah Nkambule, a member of the Edendale Christian community, founded outside Pietermaritzburg by the Methodist minister Rev. James Allison in 1851. Many of the converts originally attracted to this community were Sotho or Swazi speakers (the name Nkambule is Swazi in origin); few were Zulu speakers. In 1873 Durnford was impressed by the performance of his African auxiliaries and, charged with raising an African force to assist in tackling the Zulus in 1879, he again turned to the Edendale community. Fifty-four men responded to the request, and practical command fell to Simeon Nkambule, one of the largest landowners at Edendale. He was given the rank of sergeant major.
The Edendale troop was attached to Durnford's No. 2 Column, and was present at Isandlwana, where it was part of the force led out of the camp by Durnford himself. When Durnford encountered the Zulu left ‘horn’, he retired to the Nyogane donga, where he made a stand. When ammunition ran low, Durnford ordered his men to leave the field. Nkambule kept the Edendale men together but, with the battle lost, the Edendale troop had to force its way through the Zulu right ‘horn’ into the valley behind Isandlwana, and apparently led the way towards the crossing at Sothondose's Drift. During the retreat Nkambule saved the life of a colonial trooper by taking him up behind his saddle. At the Drift, the men crossed in relatively good order and rallied on the Natal bank, firing several volleys across the river to discourage Zulus from pursuing the survivors.
Later, at the beginning of June, Chelmsford had reached the White Mfolozi River before oNdini. On 3 July a mounted detachment under Lieutenant Colonel Redvers Buller was sent across the river to scout the vicinity of the royal homestead of kwaNodwengu. Here it was drawn into a Zulu ambush and only just extricated itself. Simeon Nkambule again saved the life of a man during the retreat, and this time his gallantry was recognised by the award of the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
Simeon Nkambule returned to play a leading role in the life of the community. During the Second Boer War the Edendale Horse were again called upon, and they took part as scouts during the siege of Ladysmith, again led by Nkambule. At the end of the war, however, the Edendale men were denied the silver campaign medal issued by the British government. After considerable protest, they were issued a cheaper bronze version.
Shepstone, George
George Shepstone was born in June 1849, a few years after his father Theophilus moved the Shepstone family to Natal. George Shepstone grew up fluent in Zulu, a good shot and an excellent horseman. In 1873 he accompanied his father and elder brother Henrique on the expedition to ‘crown’ King Cetshwayo. Also accompanying the expedition was Major Anthony Durnford RE, and it is likely that he and George first met during this time. Shortly after the expedition's return to Natal, the inkosi of the amaHlubi people, Langalibalele ka Mthimkhulu, attempted to cross the Kahlamba Mountains into BaSotholand in an attempt to escape an entanglement with the colonial authorities. Durnford was ordered to block the anticipated escape route, but the mission faltered badly in a skirmish on top of the Bushman's Pass on 4 November 1873; in the aftermath it was Shepstone who collected and buried the colonial dead on the summit.
On the outbreak of war Durnford was given command of No. 2 Column, which consisted largely of auxiliary troops and which was placed on the escarpment overlooking the Middle Drift on the Thukela. George Shepstone was appointed as Durnford's Political Agent, to serve as his adviser on African politics and affairs, a position which effectively made him Durnford's senior staff officer.
Durnford, accompanied by Shepstone, reached the Isandlwana camp at about 10.30 am on the 22nd. A significant enemy presence had been reported on the iNyoni heights nearby, and in the absence of any specific orders from Chelmsford Durnford decided to clear the heights with his own troops. He sent two detachments onto the hills, accompanied by George Shepstone; Durnford himself took the rest of his command along the foot of the hills in what he clearly hoped would be a pincer movement.
The men with Shepstone stumbled across the Zulu army at about noon. The Zulus responded with an immediate attack, and Shepstone rode back to warn the troops in the camp. He arrived somewhat breathless, and Lieutenant Colonel Henry Pulleine seemed at first undecided how best to react to his report. Memorably, Shepstone replied, ‘I am not an alarmist, sir, but the enemy are in such black masses over there, such long black lines, that you will have to give us all the assistance you can. They are fast driving our men this way’.
Shepstone apparently rejoined his men, but after the British line began to crumble he was heard to say that he must find Durnford. It is unlikely that he did; the British collapse, when it came, happened quickly, and with the men retiring on the camp, pursued by the Zulus, everything dissolved in confusion.
George Shepstone's body was found on a rocky outcrop below the southern peak of Isandlwana, on a spot which overlooks the approach from the Manzimnyama Valley. It is surrounded today by a cluster of cairns which suggests that a determined stand was made there, perhaps in the hope of holding back the Zulu right ‘horn’, or of covering the flight of survivors by the road.
Today Shepstone's grave is one of the few which is individually marked on the Isandlwana battlefield.
II Zulu participants
Cetshwayo kaMpande, King
Cetshwayo was born at emLambongwenya, one of the royal homesteads of his father, Prince Mpande kaSenzangakhona, in 1832. The name Cetshwayo ironically means ‘the slandered one‘, and if ever a man's history grew to suit his name it was Cetshwayo's. The reason he was so named is obscure, but is thought to reflect an intrigue within the Zulu royal house, for the kingdom had not yet recovered from the assassination of the legendary King Shaka, only four years before. Shaka had been succeeded by his brother and assassin, Dingane kaSenzangakhona, who eliminated a number of his brothers on various pretexts. Prince Mpande survived, largely by assuming a pose of indolence and lack of ambition. In dismissing the threat posed by Mpande, King Dingane made a serious political error. In 1838 Dingane became embroiled in a brutal war against the Boer Voortrekkers, and Mpande and several thousand of his followers crossed the Thukela River and offered their allegiance to the Boers; this was a decisive split within the royal house, and was remembered as ‘the breaking of the rope’ which bound the nation together.
Cetshwayo spent much of his youth at another of his father's homesteads, oNdini, which was sited near the coast. About 1850 he was enrolled as a cadet in what would later become the uThulwana ibutho. In 1852 the uThulwana were given their first taste of military action. Although not yet formally enrolled, they were attached to an army dispatched by Mpande to raid southern Swaziland. Although the Swazis retired before their advance, taking refuge in natural strongholds, there was considerable skirmishing during which Cetshwayo is said to have killed an enemy warrior. The campaign gave much-needed experience to the king's younger regiments and enhanced Cetshwayo's prestige. Two years later the uThulwana were formally enrolled as a regiment.
By this stage Cetshwayo had begun to accrue considerable support within the country. Worried, however, that he might prove a threat, King Mpande let it be known that Cetshwayo's brother, Mbuyazi, had a claim to kingship by virtue of being an heir to Shaka's estate. In response, Cetshwayo gathered a circle of close supporters who took the name uSuthu, from a drinking boast that they were as plentiful as the Sotho cattle Mpande had plundered during his raiding. Mbuyazi's own followers took the name iziGqoza.
By the middle of 1856 it was clear that Cetshwayo's followers far outnumbered their rivals and, worried for Mbuyazi's safety, Mpande urged him to cross the Thukela into Natal, as Mpande had once done, and secure the support of the whites. Mbuyazi delayed too long, and when he finally gathered his supporters in November 1856, the rains had begun and the rivers were swollen. By the time he reached the Thukela, with 7,000 fighting men and 13,000 dependants, the river was impassable. Mbuyazi could do little beyond appeal to the Natal authorities to intervene – they refused – and await the arrival of the uSuthu.
On 2 December as many as 20,000 uSuthu arrived, commanded by Prince Cetshwayo himself. At first Mbuyazi's warriors tried to make a stand on a ridge above the river but they collapsed under the uSuthu assault and were slaughtered in their thousands; the survivors jumped in panic into the Thukela, where many of them drowned or were taken by crocodiles. Mbuyazi himself was killed, and by this victory Cetshwayo secured the succession.
Cetshwayo took steps to eliminate any further opposition, but it was not until August 1873 that he felt able to proceed with his inauguration. He began the construction of a new royal homestead close to the site of his father's kwaNodwengu. The complex was known as oNdini or Ulundi, from the common root ‘undi’, meaning a high place. It contained as many as 1,400 huts and was widely regarded as one of the most impressive settlements in the kingdom's history.
King Cetshwayo was now in his forties, in the prime of life and selfconfidence, secure at last in his birthright. But throughout 1877 his relationship with colonial Natal was going sour. Cetshwayo was astute enough to recognise the fact but had little idea that the underlying cause was the British decision to adopt the confederation policy. In April the Transvaal Republic was annexed to the Crown, and the Transvaaal's boundary dispute with the Zulus now became a British affair. In addressing it, Theophilus Shepstone adopted such a highhanded manner that many influential Zulus were outraged. Cetshwayo eagerly seized upon the suggestion of a boundary commission, but when the findings of the commission were finally presented to the king's representatives on 11 December 1878, tagged on to them were a series of demands, prompted by border incidents, which amounted to an impossible ultimatum. The king could do little more than wait and see whether the British were in earnest; once it became clear in the first week of January that they were massing on his borders, he ordered his army to assemble at oNdini.
Although the king listened attentively to his military advisers – and in particular his commanders-in-chief, inkosi Mnyamana kaNqgengelele and Ntshingwayo kaMahole – the final choice of Zulu strategy was his. When news arrived that the British had crossed the border, and that the Centre Column was targeting royal favourites on the Rorke's Drift border, King Cetshwayo decided to dispatch his main striking force to oppose that column. The king allowed his generals full scope, only suggesting that they should be sure the British were in earnest before committing themselves to action. In the event, both armies were engaged on the 22nd when his warriors decisively defeated the Centre Column at Isandlwana. Yet the victory would prove double-edged, for the Zulu losses were staggering and the king had little option but to allow the regiments to disperse once they had undergone their post-combat purification rituals.
With the British again massing on his borders, Cetshwayo reassembled his army, and this time decided to direct it against the northern column commanded by Colonel Wood. When it marched out, the army was accompanied by inkosi Mnyamana, a token of the importance the king placed on the expedition. Yet despite Cetshwayo's instructions that it should not attack defensive positions, the army dashed itself to pieces against Wood's fortifications at Khambula on 29 March.
On 3 July Chelmsford probed across the Mfolozi, and on the 4th he crossed it in force, forming some 5,000 men into a large square within sight of oNdini. The amabutho gathered for the last time to resist, but they could not penetrate the fearsome curtain of British fire and were driven away.
The king had anticipated the defeat and did not stay to witness it. He fled into the remote Ngome forest. The British dispatched several patrols to capture him and on 28 August he was surprised and taken by Major Marter's patrol of the 1st Dragoon Guards.
The king was brought to the camp of Chelmsford's successor, Wolseley, near the burned-out ruins of his oNdini homestead, where he was officially informed that he was to be exiled from Zululand. He was taken to Cape Town and lodged in apartments in the old Cape Castle. His kingdom was then divided up among British appointees.
In captivity, Cetshwayo increasingly lobbied to be allowed to return to his country, now under British authority. His personal circumstances improved when he was moved from the Castle to a farm known as Oude Moulen on the Cape flats. Finally, in August 1882, he was granted permission to visit London to argue his case. He arrived, smartly dressed in European clothes, to find that he was a celebrity, and crowds gathered curious to see the victor of Isandlwana. He was granted an audience with Queen Victoria at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight and, while the Queen herself was wary of the man who had damaged Lord Chelmsford's reputation and destroyed the 1/24th, she presented him with a large silver mug as a souvenir and ordered her court painter to paint his portrait.
The Colonial Office agreed that the king might be restored to Zululand, but only to part of his old kingdom. Large tracts of the country were to be set aside for those Zulus who had ruled in his absence – and who could not be expected to welcome his return – and he would not be allowed to re-establish the amabutho system. Nor was his return announced to his countrymen; he arrived back on Zulu soil on 10 January 1883 to find few Zulus waiting to greet him. He was escorted to his old capital by Sir Theophilus Shepstone, who had come out of retirement for the occasion. Once news of his return spread, his old supporters, amakhosi, izinduna and commoners alike flocked to renew their allegiance.
King Cetshwayo began rebuilding a new version of oNdini, not far from the complex destroyed in 1879. He found the country deeply divided by several years of friction between his supporters and the appointees set up by the British. His followers bitterly resented the oppression they had suffered at the hands of his erstwhile general, inkosi Zibhebhu kaMapitha, and they were keen take revenge. A number of royalist supporters assembled an army in March to attack Zibhebhu. But Zibhebhu was equal to the challenge and on the 30th he routed the royalists in the Msebe Valley and destroyed them utterly.
The attack caused consternation at oNdini. Cetshwayo assembled his most prominent advisers to discuss the crisis and, despite the British ban on the amabutho, summoned those who still recognised their old allegiances. Before he could act, Zibhebhu struck first. At dawn on 21 July 1883 a line of warriors silhouetted against the dim sky advanced rapidly. Zibhebhu had made a daring night march with 3,000 men and was advancing to attack oNdini itself. Urged to flee, King Cetshwayo was led away on horseback but was spotted by two young warriors from Zibhebhu's army who hurled spears at him, striking him in the thigh. Even under such circumstances he maintained his composure. ‘Do you stab me, Halijana son of Sumfula?’ he asked, recognising one of his assailants, ‘I am your king!’ Awestruck, the young warriors assisted him in dressing the wounds and helped him on his way.
King Cetshwayo escaped the slaughter of his army, and made his way to the territory of inkosi Sigananda kaSokufa, head of the Cube people, a staunch loyalist who lived in the rugged country above the Thukela River. Here he hid in a cave at the head of the Mome stream until, in October, he surrendered himself to the British authorities in Eshowe. Then, suddenly, on the morning of 8 February 1884, King Cetshwayo kaMpande collapsed and died. A British doctor examined the body but was refused permission to conduct an autopsy; he officially gave the cause of death as heart failure, but privately suggested Cetshwayo may have been poisoned.
Cetshwayo's remains were taken by waggon back to inkosi Sigananda's territory and buried not far from the Mome Gorge. The waggon was left on the spot and allowed to decay; its remains can now be seen in the Zulu Cultural Museum at oNdini.
Dabulamanzi kaMpande, Prince
Prince Dabulamanzi achieved a level of fame among his British enemies in 1879 due largely to his attack on Rorke's Drift. He was born shortly after his father, Prince Mpande, crossed into Natal in October 1839 to secure the support of the Boers in his coup against King Dingane. Dabulamanzi's name commemorated the event; it means ‘divider of the waters’. Dabulamanzi and his older brother, Prince Cetshwayo, grew up to be firm friends. Indeed, Dabulamanzi's fortunes were entirely connected with those of his brother. Dabulamanzi supported Cetshwayo without question, and he may have been present at the battle of Ndondakusuka in which his brother's rival Mbuyazi was defeated.
Dabulamanzi spent much of his youth in the coastal districts and became acquainted with the white trader, John Dunn, whom Cetshwayo had set up as an appointed induna to supervise European traffic in the region. Dabulamanzi learned to ride, to appreciate fine guns and to shoot, and acquired a fondness for European clothes and alcohol.
King Cetshwayo appointed Dabulamanzi an officer in the eSiqwakeni royal homestead, not far from his eZulwini residence. He was not, however, a commander in the Zulu army, and urged that the king should comply where possible with the British demands of late 1878; but once war became inevitable, he committed himself wholeheartedly to its prosecution. He attended the general muster with his uDloko regiment, and took part in the great advance towards the British camp at Isandlwana. On the morning of 22 January the uDloko were camped in the Ngwebeni Valley together with other amabutho associated with the royal homestead at oNdini. When elements of Durnford's force stumbled upon them, they were held back from the general advance by the senior commander, Ntshingwayo kaMahole. They swung wide of the Zulu right‘horn’, cutting the British line of retreat by the road to Rorke's Drift before extending in pursuit of routed British troops fleeing towards the Mzinyathi River. One section of the reserve, the iNdluyengwe ibutho, apparently under Zibhebhu's command, crossed upstream from the survivors. The rest of the reserve – the uThulwana, iNdlondlo and uDloko – crossed higher still. Although Dabulamanzi held no official command within the reserve, his status as a royal prince and his strong personality led him to assume control, the more so because Zibhebhu abandoned his command at the river.
Once across the river, numbers of Zulus split away to loot deserted homesteads, while the main body, perhaps 3,500 strong and led by Dabulamanzi on horseback, moved towards the supply depot at Rorke's Drift. The Zulu attack on Rorke's Drift showed little tactical sophistication, reflecting the fact that no thought had been given to assaulting it beforehand. Dabulamanzi seems to have accepted the inevitability of defeat at about midnight and began to withdraw his exhausted men. Some of these -including Dabulamanzi himself – were retreating across the Isandlwana road the following morning when Lord Chelmsford passed in the opposite direction, the two forces watching each other go by.
Dabulamanzi's failure at Rorke's Drift earned him general disapproval across Zululand. On 12 July he submitted to the officers of the 1st Division. He was allowed to live in his own area and found himself under the chieftainship of John Dunn, his erstwhile friend, who had defected to the British. Dabulamanzi closely allied himself to the movement to have the exiled King Cetshwayo returned to Zululand and in May 1882 was one of a number of prominent Zulus from Dunn's districts who walked to Pietermaritzburg to appeal against the settlement. When King Cetshwayo was restored in January 1883, Dabulamanzi attended the ceremonies held on the Mthonjaneni heights, and took the opportunity to deliver a stinging rebuke on British policy to Sir Theophilus Shepstone. He remained in attendance upon King Cetshwayo as he rebuilt his oNdini homestead.
Following the Zulu rebellion, on 21 September 1886, Dabulamanzi was arrested with his son Mzingeli by the Boers on a trumped-up charge of cattle rustling and taken under the escort to Vryheid. When they passed through the Nondweni district – which was in British territory – the Prince asked to rest at a homestead and then refused to go on, claiming that the Boers had no jurisdiction there. There was a scuffle which ended with Dabulamanzi being shot. Mortally wounded, he died early next morning. His body was later taken to the site of his eZulwini homestead near Eshowe where it was buried.
Mkhosana kaMvundlana Biyela
Mkhosana kaMvundlana was inkosi of the Biyela people, and played a decisive role in the battle of Isandlwana, where he was killed. The Biyela, whose ancestral lands lay south-east of the middle reaches of the White Mfolozi River, enjoyed a particularly close relationship with the Zulu royal house, with whom they claimed common ancestors.
Mkhosana was born about 1835, and enrolled in the iNdlondlo ibutho. Mkhosana seems to have retained King Cetshwayo's friendship, although his youth debarred him from sitting on the king's inner council. Following the usual Zulu practice of appointing older men as senior officers among newly-formed regiments, Mkhosana had, by 1879, been given a high-ranking command among the uKhandempemvu (uMcijo) ibutho. He is listed among the three most senior officers of the regiment, although overall command rested with Vumandaba kaNthathi, who was both older and one of King Cetshwayo's most trusted councillors. Nevertheless, Mkhosana was the senior induna of kwaKhandempemvu, the royal homestead near oNdini, where the uKhandempemvu were based.
With the outbreak of war in January 1879, Mkhosana accompanied his regiment on the advance towards Isandlwana. It was the uKhandempemvu who, having been discovered at about noon on 22nd January by mounted parties sent out from the British camp, launched the spontaneous attack which precipitated the battle. Mkhosana, along with many senior regimental officers, was apparently attending a command conference with the generals Ntshingwayo kaMahole and Mavumengwana kaNdlela when their impi was discovered; he did not rejoin his men but remained with the generals as they followed behind the advancing regiments. The generals took up a commanding position above the iNyoni rocks on the escarpment overlooking Isandlwana, as the Zulu centre – including the uKhandempemvu – descended to the dongas below and came under heavy fire from the forward British firing line. The men of the uKhandempemvu took cover among the dongas and, with the open ground in front of them swept by fire, their advance stalled. Realising that if the centre failed the whole assault would collapse, Ntshingwayo sent Mkhosana hurrying down the steep escarpment to urge his men on.
When he reached the dongas, Mkhosana strode up and down fearlessly in front of his men, oblivious to the British bullets striking rocks all around him, berating the sheltering warriors and urging them to renew the attack. Wearing the full finery of an inkosi, he presented such a magnificent spectacle, alone and in the open, that the British were reluctant to shoot him down. Famously, Mkhosana rallied his men by calling out lines from King Cetshwayo's praises – ‘uhlamvana ubul'mlilo ubaswe uMantshonga no uNgqelebana kashongo njalo’ (‘the little branch of leaves that extinguished the great fire kindled by Mantshonga and Nqgelebana’) – a reference to Prince Cetshwayo's victory at the battle of Ndondakusuka in 1856. Stung by this allusion to their royal duty, the uKhandempemvu rose up from the donga and rushed forward. Their attack coincided with the British withdrawal towards the camp, and the uKhandempemvu were able to drive between the 24th companies and prevent the British reforming. The moment was a decisive one and precipitated the British collapse.
At the moment of his triumph Mkhosana, aged forty-three, was killed, shot through the head. Like most of the Zulu dead, he was covered over and left on the battlefield.
Mnyamana kaNgqengele Buthelezi
In 1854 King Mpande formed a new ibutho, the uThulwana. It consisted of men born in the early 1830s, including a number of Mpande's own sons, Prince Cetshwayo among them. Mpande was particularly fond of this regiment and he appointed Mnyamana Buthelezi as the senior commander of the uThulwana, remarking that he was the only man in the country with the strength of character and the standing to overawe them.
Among Mnyamana's responsibilities as induna'nkulu was the overall control of the army. When news came that Lord Chelmsford had crossed the border at Rorke's Drift on 12 January 1879 and attacked inkosi Sihayo's followers, Mnyamana played a leading and crucial role in determining the Zulu response, urging that the Zulu army be dispatched to the Rorke's Drift front in response. When on 17 January the army, having been ritually prepared, set out for the border from the kwaNodwengu homestead near oNdini, a number of Mnyamana's sons went with it.
The army, of course, encountered the British column at Isandlwana. Among the Zulus killed was Mnyamana's son Mtumengana. Indeed, so great were the Zulu losses – and so ominous the lessons for future fighting – that Mnyamana urged the king to make peace while he was in a favourable position to do so.
When the army set out again, it did so for the north. This time, inkosi Mnyamana accompanied the army in person. It was a measure of the importance Cetshwayo placed on the campaign that he sent with it his most senior and respected councillor to represent his ‘eyes and ears’ and to personally direct strategy. On 28 March part of the army encountered and drove off the British foray against Hlobane Mountain; on 29 March the whole army attacked Wood's camp at Khambula.
Tactical direction passed to Mnyamana's great friend, Ntshingwayo kaMahole. The difficult ground over which the army was forced to approach, and the eagerness of the younger amabutho on either wing, meant that the attack got off to an uncoordinated start, and the Zulus were defeated.
The defeat at Khambula was the turning point in the war, for it was clear that the Zulus had little hope of winning by military means alone. The country was once again filled with mourning; among the dead were two more of Mnyamana's sons. King Cetshwayo tried with increased urgency to open negotiations, but the British were now even less prepared to listen.
On 4 July Chelmsford crossed the Mfolozi River and drew up in formation on the very ground where the Zulus had hoped to trap him. Mnyamana was apparently watching the battle with Cetshwayo's representative, Prince Ziwedu, from a hillside nearby. Sadly, the encircling movements which had proved so destructive at Isandlwana, and which had nearly triumphed at Khambula, were checked by a careful British deployment in square, and again the Zulus were defeated.
Wolseley set about establishing a new regime in the conquered land, setting up thirteen appointees to rule on Britain's behalf. He offered inkosi Mnyamana a chieftainship, but Mnyamana refused, partly out of loyalty to Cetshwayo and partly out of uncertainty over the fate of his followers, most of whom were placed under the defector, Prince Hamu kaNzibe.
When Cetshwayo returned to Zululand in 1883, Mnyamana hurried to greet him, and assumed his old role of induna'nkulu. But Zululand was in disarray and with the subsequent death of King Cetshwayo the royalist cause was in tatters. Inkosi Mnyamana was now in his seventies. He had lived to see the fall of the old Zulu order and the inexorable advance of European encroachment. He died on 29 July 1892.
His great-grandson is Dr Mangosuthu Buthelezi, a prominent politician, founder of the Inkatha Freedom Party and a former Minister of the Interior in the South African government.
Ntshingwayo kaMahole
Ntshingwayo was born about 1810 into the chiefly line of the Khoza people, who lived on the upper reaches of the White Mfolozi, north of Nhlazatshe Mountain.
Little is known about Ntshingwayo's early career. As king, one of Cetshwayo's first acts was to appoint Mnyamana, inkosi of the Buthelezi, as his new senior induna. Mnyamana and Ntshingwayo were of a similar age and were also personal friends; Ntshingwayo soon found himself enjoying a similar relationship, as a supporter and political ally, with Mnyamana as he had previously with Masiphula. King Cetshwayo appointed Ntshingwayo as commander of the kwaGqikazi royal homestead, and seems to have regarded him as commander-in-chief of the Zulu army.
When, from 1877, the increasingly strained relationship with British Natal seemed likely to spill into open conflict, both Mnyamana and Ntshingwayo advocated a policy of caution. They were fearful of the consequences of going to war with the British, but when the Zulu army left oNdini on 17 January for the border, Ntshingwayo marched with it as senior commander.
On the eve of war Ntshingwayo is described as being about seventy years old, a stocky, powerful man whose grey hairs and paunch belied a physical toughness and commanding presence. Ntshingwayo and his colleague Mavumengwana kaNdlela walked at the head of their men rather than riding horses as many izinduna did, setting a comfortable and practical pace which would not exhaust the army.
By 20 January Ntshingwayo had directed the army to move towards the sheltered Ngwebeni Valley. That the move was accomplished on the 21st without discovery by the British was arguably one of the great Zulu masterstrokes of the war.
Ntshingwayo controlled the Zulu advance from the edge of the iNyoni escarpment, overlooking the camp at Isandlwana. His choice of lookout again testifies to his skill and experience; it allowed him a panoramic view of almost the entire battlefield, in contrast to the limited perspective of the British officers at the foot of Isandlwana below. From his position Ntshingwayo recognised danger when he saw the Zulu advance stall; he reacted quickly, sending Mkhosana kaMvundlana to rally the uKhandempemvu and urge them on.
Despite the impromptu nature of the Zulu attack, Isandlwana was very much Ntshingwayo's victory. He had outmanoeuvred Lord Chelmsford, moving his army to within five miles of the British camp without being detected, and his thorough scouting and command briefings laid the basis for the Zulu success
It is a bitter irony that Ntshingwayo, the great Zulu victor of Isandlwana, should have been killed along with more than fifty distinguished men, many of whom had served not only Cetshwayo but King Mpande before him, not by foreign enemies but by his fellow countrymen, in the ensuing civil war which was the logical conclusion of the policy of ‘divide and rule’ pursued by the British.
Zibhebhu kaMaphitha
Zibhebhu kaMaphitha was one of the most able military commanders to emerge from the 1879 conflict, although, ironically, the full extent of his abilities only became apparent afterwards, to the desperate cost of his countrymen. Zibhebhu was inkosi of the Mandlakazi, a section of the Zulu royal house who traced their descent from King Shaka's grandfather, Jama.
Zibhebhu had seen little military action prior to 1879, but his flair soon became apparent. He was commanding the Zulu scouts who, on 21 January, brushed aside a British patrol which very nearly intercepted the movement of the main Zulu army from Siphezi towards Ngwebeni Valley, near Isandlwana. The following day, during the battle of Isandlwana, he commanded the reserve which cut the British line of retreat to Rorke's Drift. He harried the British survivors until they reached the Mzinyathi River, where Zibhebhu abandoned his command and crossed into Natal to plunder cattle on his own account.