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The Anglo-Zulu War Battlefields 1878 – 1879

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The Anglo-Zulu War Battlefields 1878 – 1879 THE ANGLO-ZULU WAR BATTLEFIELDS 1878 – 1879 • Good morning. All of you will be familiar with the memorial of the Zulu Shields in St Michael’s Chapel. An opportunity arose for me to visit the Zulu Battlefields in February this year. I am glad that I took the journey as it was an experience that I will never forget and one that I would like to share with you as I thought it would be helpful in adding to our knowledge of one of the most visually striking of the memorials in the Cathedral. • My talk will cover the origin of the Zulu Shields memorial, the background and reasons for the Anglo-Zulu War, the key personalities involved on both sides and the battlefields where the officers and men of the 80th Regiment of Foot (Staffordshire Volunteers) died. • Zulu Shields memorial. Let me begin with the memorial. The ironwork in the form of the Zulu Shields was done by Hardman of Birmingham with the design including representations of the assegais (spears) and mealie cobs. It was originally placed in the North Transept in 1881where it formed part of the side screen to St Stephen’s Chapel. The Chapel was rearranged in recent times with the Zulu memorial relocated to the South Transept and the white marble reredos now stands against the east wall of the North Choir Aisle. • Turning to the memorial itself, the plaque on the floor reads: “Erected by the Officers, NCOs and Men of the 80th (Staffordshire Volunteers) Regiment who served in South Africa. To the memory of their comrades who fell during the Sekukuni and Zulu Campaigns – 1878-1879”. The Shields list the names of 88 Officers, NCOs and Privates who died. The greatest loss was 62 men killed at Intombi (Ntombe) Drift (‘drift’ meaning a river crossing), 7 at Isandhlwana, 2 at the battle of Ulundi and 17 killed at various locations in Zululand and the Transvaal, 8 of whom have no known grave. • 80th Regiment of Foot. So who were the 80th Regiment of Foot (Staffordshire Volunteers)? They were raised in 1793 by Lord Henry William Paget whose father’s estates were at Beaudesert near Cannock. He succeeded his father as Earl of Uxbridge in 1812. As most of you will know he lost a leg when leading a cavalry charge at the battle of Waterloo and was made 1st Marquis of Anglesey for conspicuous services in battle. The Regiment served in Egypt helping to dislodge Napoleon in 1801-02, in India in the Sikh Wars of 1845-46, throughout the Empire, and at home in Great Britain and Ireland. • Background to the Anglo-Zulu War. By the 1870s much of Southern Africa was divided between the British, the Dutch Boers and native tribes most notably the Zulus. Cape Colony and Natal were in the hands of the British. The Transvaal (South African Republic) and the Orange Free State were in the hands of the Dutch Boers. Zululand remained independent. The discovery of gold and diamonds in the Transvaal and Orange Free State in the late 1860s brought an influx of miners and traders to Southern Africa. Britain decided to use a proven policy of confederation as a means of bringing the area’s trade, defence and colonial law under one central administration. Basutoland was annexed in 1868, followed by the Transvaal in 1877. Thus, apart from the Orange Free State, most of South Africa was under the control of the British by 1878. The two areas outside British control were the north- east part of the Transvaal and Zululand. The former was in the hands of Chief Sekukuni and the Bafidi people from Basuto who refused to give up their tribal lands and the latter was the land of the Zulus whose king, Cetshwayo had been crowned King of the Zulu Nation in the name of Queen Victoria in 1873. • Arrival of the 80th Regiment. The 80th Regiment arrived in South Africa in 1876 aboard HMS Orontes and their first assignment was against Chief Sekukuni in 1878. But the Regiment was no more successful than the Boers had been in trying to drive him out of his tribal lands. Having got to within reach of his stronghold after marching some 430 miles in the heat of the African summer, the Regiment was ordered to withdraw. • Reasons for the Anglo-Zulu War. The British representatives in South Africa were Sir Bartle Frere, High Commissioner to South Africa and Governor of the Cape and Sir Theophilus Shepstone, his Secretary for Native Affairs. It was they who promoted the federation of the Southern African colonies through annexation thereby antagonising the Dutch Boers. Promises made on financial aid and railway provision were not forthcoming, thereby storing up future resentment leading to the Boer wars a decade later. Both men favoured military intervention against the Zulus to forcibly bring Zululand under British control. In consultation with Lord Chelmsford, the Lieutenant General commanding British forces in South Africa a plan of conquest was devised whose objectives were a) to defeat the Zulu army; b) destroy the Zulu King’s principal residence at Ulundi; and c) to capture the Zulu King Cetshwayo. They encouraged the belief that Cetshwayo possessed an army of 50,000 warriors poised to invade the British colony of Natal. • In reality the situation was very different. The Zulus had been faithful allies of the British for many years. King Cetshwayo wanted peace. Meantime the Boer farmers had increasingly been surreptitiously moving into Zululand in a disputed area north of Rorkes’s Drift claimed by the Boers to be part of the Transvaal. Sir Bartle Frere set up an independent Boundary Commission to adjudicate the title to the disputed territory. Much to his dismay the Commission concluded in July 1878 that the Boers had never acquired the territory and it still belonged to Zululand. • Concerned at how the Boers would react to the decision, Frere ignored the judgement and without waiting approval from the Government in London issued an ultimatum to the Zulus which included the requirement that the Zulu Army disband within 30 days. It was delivered to the Zulus in December 1878. There was no way that Cetshwayo could accept this requirement. He continued to send messages making it clear that he wanted no quarrel with the British and therefore there was no need to invade his kingdom. But the British invasion force was already advancing towards his borders. • The Invasion of Zululand. The invasion began on 11th January 1879 with a force of some 17,000 men distributed into five columns. King Cetshwayo had no option but to mobilise his armies of some 50,000 men. The backbone of British firepower was the new Martini-Henry rifle, a breech-loading metallic cartridge firearm. It had its short-comings but was quick loading using bullets. The Zulus had acquired some 20,000 obsolete European rifles from traders, but their main weapons were the cowhide shields, Zulu spears and knobkerries. This was a War which should never have been fought. How often have we heard such a view expressed in recent times! • The 80th Regiment of Foot found itself as part of No 5 column whose main job was to protect the border at Luneburg and keep an eye on the Transvaal Boers. Camp sites were selected in advance for the columns. Lord Chelmsford’s plan was to engage the main Zulu army as quickly as possible. The camp site selected for the main No 3 Column, the 24th Regiment of Foot (2nd Warwickshire Regiment) was on the slopes of Isandhlwana. The hill is a breath-taking sight. Its shape has an outline, not unlike a sphinx which was part of the 24th Regiment’s uniform regalia in the form of a sphinx badge on the collar of their uniform in recognition of their service against Napoleon in 2 Egypt. But, having received reports of countless Zulu camp fires to the south-east, Chelmsford decided to split his force of some 5,000 men and on Tuesday 21st January headed east to engage the Zulu army leaving some 1,700 men in the camp at Isandhlwana. This was to prove a fatal mistake as no attempt had been made to entrench the camp or draw the wagons into a defensive arrangement. • In the early hours of the next morning, Wednesday 22nd January the main Zulu army of some 25,000 men invaded the camp from the north-east. Superbly disciplined and using their fighting tactic of the “horns of the bull” whereby the main body advanced in the centre and the right and left horns enveloped the enemy on either side, the attack began at 11.30 am. By 12.45 pm the camp was destroyed and over 1,000 British and Colonial troops killed including 7 men of the 80th Regiment whose names are recorded on the memorial in the Cathedral. Zulu casualties were estimated at between 1,500 and 3,000. The scene is poignantly depicted in a painting by Charles Edwin Fripp entitled “The Last Stand at Isandhlwana” which he painted in 1885 following a visit to the site, and which I saw displayed in an exhibition at Tate Britain in March. In the closing moments of the battle there was a partial eclipse of the sun giving the whole scene an eerie look. This is why the Zulus named the battle The Day of the Dead Moon. When Lord Chelmsford returned that evening and observed the scene his recorded words were: “I can’t understand it. I left a 1,000 men here.” • Only 79 European survivors escaped the carnage including 2 from the 80th Regiment – Privates Samuel Wassall and Thomas Westwood who were part of a mounted infantry detachment.
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