Rorke’s Drift, 1879
For my old regiment the Royal Regiment of Wales (an amalgamation in 1969 of the 24th of Foot (South Wales Borderers) and the 41st of Foot (Welsh Regiment)), 22 January was a regimental holiday marking the Battle of Rorke's Drift in 1879 in the Zulu Wars.
This Charles Stadden pewter figure was produced by the RRW in 1979 to mark the centenary of the battle in which, of eleven Victoria Crosses, seven went to members of the 24th, the highest number of VCs awarded to one unit in one action.
Don’t fall for the Stanley Baker propaganda peddled in the 1965 film ‘Zulu’, implying the battle was a Welsh affair “with a few foreigners from England” to quote from the film. The 24th of Foot was at that time, the Warwickshire Regiment and although there were few soldiers from Warwickshire in it, English soldiers outnumbered Welsh soldiers by a long chalk. Whilst a very good “ripping yarn” based on true events, the film played fast and loose with facts and people, adding some and omitting others, and doing others a disservice, such as Acting Commissary Dalton (probably the true hero of the battle) and transforming Private Hook from a teetotaller working in the hospital as a cook, into a drunken ne’er do well who was malingering there. I could go on...
Rorke’s Drift, 1879
For my old regiment the Royal Regiment of Wales (an amalgamation in 1969 of the 24th of Foot (South Wales Borderers) and the 41st of Foot (Welsh Regiment)), 22 January was a regimental holiday marking the Battle of Rorke's Drift in 1879 in the Zulu Wars.
This Charles Stadden pewter figure was produced by the RRW in 1979 to mark the centenary of the battle in which, of eleven Victoria Crosses, seven went to members of the 24th, the highest number of VCs awarded to one unit in one action.
Don’t fall for the Stanley Baker propaganda peddled in the 1965 film ‘Zulu’, implying the battle was a Welsh affair “with a few foreigners from England” to quote from the film. The 24th of Foot was at that time, the Warwickshire Regiment and although there were few soldiers from Warwickshire in it, English soldiers outnumbered Welsh soldiers by a long chalk. Whilst a very good “ripping yarn” based on true events, the film played fast and loose with facts and people, adding some and omitting others, and doing others a disservice, such as Acting Commissary Dalton (probably the true hero of the battle) and transforming Private Hook from a teetotaller working in the hospital as a cook, into a drunken ne’er do well who was malingering there. I could go on...