Society News

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Annual presentation of the Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi Awards.
 
Letter To Dr Adrian Greaves from Prince Buthelezi dated 25th April 2008 .
 
I thank you for your letter and for the reports and photographs of the first presentation of the 'Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi awards for service to the Zulu People'.
 
I am not only impressed but I am humbled by it particularly because of the wonderful choice of the recipients. There is not a single person honoured that did not deserve to be so honoured.
 
Thanks to you for your initiative and thanks to the Anglo-Zulu War Historical society for the wonderful initiative which will strengthen the historical ties that link us to the great British nation.
 
I wish to congratulate all the recipients.
 
Yours most warmly,
Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi
Chairperson: the House of Traditional Leaders
Traditional Prime Minister of the Zulu Nation.

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Henry Charles Harford, ‘The Beetle Collector’
Hero of the Zulu War, Soldier and Entomologist.
By Dr David Payne and Emma Payne.   Edited by Dr Adrian Greaves FRGS

Henry Charles Harford was an entomologist and a vibrant personality of the Anglo Zulu War. Harford had always fascinated David Rattray, the world famous lecturer on the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 and himself a qualified entomologist. David gave countless world-wide presentations and always wove the story of ‘Charlie Harford the beetle collector’ into his enthralling lectures. David was especially excited when the new material was discovered and he was delighted to hold and present Harford’s medal to his audience during his final Royal Geographical Society lecture in London - just four months before his untimely death.

With 151 new pictures, photographs and sketches
Publication date  9th May 2008

Click here to read the full resumé on our books page. 

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Rob Caskie's lecture in Windermere.
Rob  Caskie of  Fugitives' Drift Lodge will be presenting on The Battle of Rorke's Drift at The Percival Lecture Theatre at the University of Cumbria Ambleside Campus on Thursday 29th May at 19.30.
 
Tickets are £12.50 and are obtainable from Pat Crowfoot at: Beck Lodge,Bridge Lane,
Troutbeck,Windermere,Cumbria,LA23 1LA.  Cheques should be made payable to The Windermere Rotary Club and nett proceeds will go to The Langdale and Ambleside Mountain Rescue Organisation-a most worthy cause.
 
The lecture will take approximately 70 minutes and will be followed by question and answers then followed by refreshments which are included in the cost of tickets.
 
Ample car parking is available on site.
 
Any further information can be obtained from Pat Crowfoot on e-mail: patcrowfoot@aol.com  or by Tel: 01539 442738.

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Presentation of the Prince Buthelezi awards for Service to the Zulu People.
 
On Friday 21st March the HQ of the Royal Logistics Corps at Deepcut hosted the Inaugural presentation of Prince Buthelezi awards for service to the Zulu People. The Guest of Honour was Lady Baker, widow of Sir Stanley Baker. Guests travelled from New Zealand, S. Africa, Canada and the USA, and from across the UK for the event.
 
The award was finally agreed by Minister Prince Buthelezi in June of 2007. All awards are for Service to the Zulu People, and the recipients were;
 
Gold Postumous
Sir Stanley Baker
SB Bourquin
David Rattray
 
Inaugural Gold for Life Service
Prof. John Laband - Author and researcher
Ian Knight - Author and researcher
David Charles - co-founder of Fugitives' Drift Lodge and fund raiser
 
Inaugural Silver
Brian Best  - VC Society
Ian Castle - Author and researcher
Alan Critchley - RDVC web site
Major Martin Everett - brecon Museum
Col. Mike Martin - Battlefield tours
Damian O'Connor - Author and researcher
 
2007 Gold
Terri Julians - Aids worker in Zululand
 
2007 Silver
Mark Maplesden - Author and researcher
 
2008 Gold
Roberta Welham - Patron and fund raiser - RD Zulu Village
 
Silver
Jenni Darwin and Katie Stossel -  rund raisers for the RD Zulu Village
 
PhD award  Calamus University
Brian Kieran LLB

Please click on the links to see photos of the recipients

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NEW IAN KNIGHT BOOK
Ian Knight's new book, 'A Companion to the Anglo-Zulu War', is due to be published this summer. It is an encyclopaedic look at little-known aspects of the Anglo-Zulu War. Concieved as a series of extended footnotes, it is an A to Z of essential, little-known, or quirky facts about the war with the accent very much on the human story, designed to fill the gaps left by more conventional histories. It covers everything from the training, organisation and weapons of the armies to the controversial role of ammunition boxes, the post-war histories of the battlefields, the role of food and pay, religious belief, the weather, that famous eclipse, and even events that were going on elsewhere in the world at the time. It looks at the colourful career of liars and frauds whose claim to distinction for war service was decidedly suspect, and it charts the history of the controversies surrounding the battle of iSandlwana. Ever wondered if snakes were a problem to the combatants? Or if British officers were tempted to pot big game while on service in Africa? Whether rumours of treasures buried or lost by the troops were real? Or even whether 'Zulu' was the first representation of the war in the cinema? The answers lie within, making this an essential book no student of the war will want to be without.

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Next Society Exhibition - 2008
 
Eastbourne's Military Museum will be hosting the Society's next full exhibition. The venue is the Redoubt, the site of the town's sea front fortress, and the South coast's largest military museum. The exhibition will run from mid March until November 2008 and entrance will be free to Society members on production of their membership card.
The  venue is the home of the Royal Sussex Regimental Museum and the exhibits range from the 17th Century to the present day.
The main exhibits from the Society will focus on Zulu War medals - there will be nearly 100 on display, including those issued to Comd. Hamilton-Brown, Lt Curling RA, Sister Janet, Lt Charlie Harford (the beetle collector), Rorke's Drift defenders and Isandlwana casualties - and we are currently negotiating to display a VC.The main exhibits will relate to these individuals and will include numerous original documents and artefacts recovered from Rorke's Drift, Isandlwana, Ntombe and the capture of King Cetshwayo. There will be a number of lecture weekends - details are still being arranged.
Parking 'off street' is easy, there are several disabled bays, and we are negotiating cut-price hotel accommodation for members wishing to extend their stay in Eastbourne.
I can guarantee a stunning exhibition.
Full details will be posted to members towards the end of this year. The website for the museum is;  www.eastbournemuseums.co.uk/
I look forward to seeing you in Eastbourne.
Dr Adrian Greaves

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Obituary
 
Roger Lane.
Roger suddenly died on the 5th February. He was the great-grandson of Colour Sergeant Henry Gallagher, a Rorke's Drift defender. Roger always fought his great-grandfather's corner and represented him at many Zulu War events, including featuring on a BBC programme about the Zulu War with Author Ian Knight,  BBC programme was Timewatch;  Zulu - The True Story.
 
Roger was taken ill towards the end of 2007 and deteriorated suddenly. His loss has shocked his friends, we mourne him deeply. We will always remember him for his cheery disposition and wonderful willingness to appear at Zulu War functions.

 

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Zulu Village at Rorke's Drift

Click here for the latest news about the Zulu Village at Rorke's Drift.
The Rorke's Drift Zulu Village.
 
"I have just come back from the village - my first proper look - it really is fantastic, Emmanuel has done a great job, its very aesthetically pleasing! You can be proud of him!"
Nicky Rattray, Fugitives' Drift Lodge, Zululand.

 

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Auction on 27th June 2007
South Africa campaign medal - Sgt. Gallagher, Rorke's Drift defender.
As a matter of interest, Sgt Gallagher's medal came up for auction with Dix Noonan Webb in London on 27th June. Sgt Gallagher was a Rorke's Drift defender and his medal had a suggested value of anything from £25,000 upwards - it actually sold for £34,000. Curiously, this is the medal that was allegedly stolen from Sgt Gallagher when on service a couple of years later in Egypt. He never saw the 'stolen' medal again and borrowed one so that he was properly dressed on parades.The 'borrowed' medal can be seen on display at the RE Museum, Woolwich. There can be little doubt that the medal auctioned is the original. 

 

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Journal 22 is on-line

The December 2007 journal is now on-line and available to Society members on the Members' Only site.  

 

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Spelling of names  - members' queries.
A number of members have recently asked about Zulu and Colonial spellings, particularly with regard to Rorke's Drift and Isandlwana. Overall, the Society and its writers use conventional and accepted spellings. In the interest of accuracy and clarity, there is no record James Rorke ever spelt his name with a u - his signature is always without (and he was literate, so no excuses that he didn't know what he was writing). Isandlwana with an h is just the colonial version, as used by the 24th Regimental Museum at Brecon. Before isiZulu became a written language - Isandlwana was often spelled Isandula. In fact, there are some grounds to spell it iSandlwana or eSandlwana, either of which are more correct (like it should be uShaka or uCetshwayo etc) - but most authors shy away from being that radical!
Adrian Greaves
Journal Editor.

 

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BLUE PLAQUE FOR KING CETSHWAYO
English Heritage have added a blue plaque to 18 Melbury Road, London - the house where King Cetshwayo stayed during his brief visit to London in August 1882. The plaque was proposed by archaeologist Dr Tony Pollard, who directed the Isandlwana battlefield dig in 2000. King Cetshwayo visited England in the aftermath of the Anglo-Zulu War to argue his case for restoration; during his visit he became a firm favourite with London crowds who gathered outside 18 Melbury Road in the hope of catching a glimpse of him. He also met Queen Victoria at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight - she presented him with a silver mug, now in the KwaZulu Cultural Museum at oNdini. Partly as a result of his visit the king was restored with limited powers in 1883.

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The People's Museum National BBC2 Television Competition  
Members will be interested to know that the Royal Red Cross of Sister Janet Wells - Heroine and Zulu War Nurse, was placed 13th overall in this national BBC2 competition to discover the nation's favourite artefact. This decoration, together with her Russian decoration for the 1878 Russo-Turkish War and South Africa Campaign Medal will be displayed, along with many more of her artefacts, at Firepower Museum, Woolwich, on the 19th and 20th August.
 
The book of Sister Janet is now available at all bookshops - authors Brian Best and Katie Stossel. It is reviewed at www.azwrs.com

Zulu War Prints
South African artist Gail van Lingen has produced a collection of four Anglo Zulu War prints. These have been selected from a collection of original oil canvases the Times Media Group commissioned her to paint. They were published by Jonathan Ball Publishing with Times Media in 1991 in a book entitled " Battlefields of South Africa."  See www.gailvanlingen.com for more detail or to order.

Update to high value Zulu War medal duplicates.
With regard to the earlier notice about fake and duplicate medals coming on the market, we have now learned that one such suspect medal has been put back into the market as a 'genuine' medal. It is a copy/fake/replica of the medal of Pte 239 JM Meredith 24th Regiment - an Isandlwana casualty. When this item came to notice, both medals were checked by specialists at Spinks and the suspect item was returned to the dealer whence it came. At the request of another auction house, both medals were again subjected to scrutiny by both parties - with the same unanimous result. It appears that the suspect medal was then returned to the original source - who appears to have quickly sold it for, it is believed, £5,400. The genuine medal is marked 'Pte 239 J Meredith' ... the suspect medal is marked 'Pte 239 JM Meredith'. I can only remind prospective purchasers of high value Zulu War medals to take adequate precautions - Spinks have kindly offered to advise on, and check, any such medals
Adrian Greaves

Serious Warning – ‘Duplicate’ high-value Zulu War medals
Do you collect rare Zulu War medals? If so, be on your guard. In the last month, three such high-value ‘duplicates’ have been offered for sale, as original medals. One was a Rorke’s Drift defender, which was offered to an auction house, and two were Isandlwana casualties, offered to the public. Unfortunately, these named ‘duplicates’ have not been officially issued and the genuine items are already in existing collections. To eliminate the possibility that the originals had been switched at some time, the originals have now been exhaustively tested by independent professional numismatologists, and the original medals’ genuineness verified.

The three ‘duplicates’ have also been examined and the combined opinion of the experts is that these previously unseen ‘duplicates’ are genuine Zulu War medals of low value, but skillfully re-named to indicate 24th Regiment Isandlwana or Rorke’s Drift participants. They have probably been altered using lasers before being re-silvered and then treated with aging chemicals
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Advice; when considering such an expensive purchase, either buy from an accredited auction house or ensure you have a written money-back guarantee from the seller, for the full amount, in the event that your proposed new medal is already in existence.

Remember; the fact that a medal is listed on the official Medal Roll does not mean that every named medal offered for sale is genuine; paperwork is even easier to forge. If you decide to purchase such a medal, at least check with one of the top auction houses to ascertain its provenance. Most well known significant Zulu War medals, especially Rorke’s Drift and Isandlwana, are already in private collections or housed in military museums so you should also check with the appropriate Regimental Museum – they might still have the genuine medal in their display.

Finally, once such a ‘duplicate’ medal has come to light, it has no commercial value.

Adrian Greaves
Anglo Zulu War Historical Society