The book is a welcome addition to my collection on the subject, it's a fantastic collection of never before published first-hand accounts of one of the most infamous battles in British history.

The title of the regiment would have been a trivial irrelevence to the men in it, who served the Queen in it both before and after 1879. Whatever their nationality, they would have lived, laughed, ate, slept, fought and died with each other and for each other. The book includes all the citations for the 11 (yes eleven) Victoria Crosses earned over the 12 hours of fighting. The fighting was hand-to-hand at times, with bayonets being used against spears in the night time.

Corporal Christian Schiess VC

I would question this as a fact. In 1870 the Army Enlistment Act reduced the amount of time spent with the colours from 12 to 6 years. Let’s say there were 1700 men serving with the two battalions of the 24th in 1870. On average, one twelfth of these men would leave (being time served) each year from 1870. So by 1879, over a period of 9 years, some 1270 “long service” men would have been replaced by 1270 “short service” men. Thus in 1879, 74% of both battalions would in fact be “short service” men and nearly 850 of these (that is, about 50% of the men serving in 1879) would have done their training at Brecon !!!! These are of course mathematical average figures – the actual figures could be gleaned by going through the enlistment details of each of the men who served in the 24th from 1870 to 1879, but they are not going to produce substantially different figures. The bottom line is this. The film made it appear that the 24th was Welsh, it was not, it also made it appear that the regiment contained more Welshmen than the few 'forigners from England', it did not, it gave the impression that the 24th was very much a Welsh regiment by singing 'Men of Harlech', which was not the regimental song of the 24th at the time, and this never happened anyway, it made it appear that most V.C's went to Welshmen, they did not, it did state that the regiment was called the SWB, even if it was Richard Burton saying it at the end of the film, the name of the regiment was given has being the SWB, which it was not. Think of Rorke’s Drift, and what comes to mind? A brutal battle, singing Welshmen (as if war isn’t bad enough already) Redcoats and Michael Caine. The truth is a little different and this book covers the whole battle, in the words of those who were there (because they were there).

The point is well worth remembering when reading this "New Pespective" on the renowned battle of Rorke's Drift based only on primary sources of the survivors. I had mild concerns about this book simply becasue the title suggests a revisionist approach that this book makes no effort to atttempt. The attitude of Garnett Wolseley shines through. He despised the two lieutenants, Chard and Bromhead, who lead the defence, writing about Chard after presenting him with his VC

Laband, John (1992). Kingdom in Crisis: The Zulu Response to the British Invasion of 1879. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-3582-1. This book is extensive and it makes it difficult to think that there is a second volume, which I'm going to buy once this is posted. At the end of the fighting, 400 Zulus lay dead on the battlefield. Only 17 British were killed, but almost every man in the garrison had sustained some kind of wound. [16] With the defences nearing completion and battle approaching, Chard had several hundred men available to him: Bromhead's B Company, Stevenson's large NNC company, Henderson's NNH troop, and various others (most of them hospital patients, but 'walking wounded') drawn from various British and colonial units. Adendorff also stayed, while the trooper who had ridden in with him galloped on to warn the garrison at Helpmekaar. [18]

Snook, Lt Col Mike, Like Wolves on the Fold: The Defence of Rorke's Drift. Greenhill Books, London, 2006. ISBN 1-85367-659-4. Of the 122 soldiers of the 24th Regiment present at the Battle of Rorke's Drift, 49 are known to have been of English nationality, 32 were Welsh, 16 were Irish, 1 was a Scot, and 3 were born overseas. The nationalities of the remaining 21 are unknown." Featuring a wide range of first-hand accounts and testimonies from those present during the Battle of Rorke's Drift, Rorke's Drift By Those Who Were There is a remarkable work of Anglo-Zulu military history by those who know the topic best, Lee Stevenson and Ian Knight. This updated edition of the classic work of the same name includes even more first-person accounts from the combatants on both the British and Zulu sides. His main "revision" is to promote the idea that the Hosvalpital was evacuated in two seperate groups one by Hook and Williams and earlier by R.Jones and W.Jones, all of whom earned teh V.C for their efforts All his claims are supported with quotes from survivor accounts and are credible.Let us just take a look at just one of a multitude of online biographies that anyone can find just by googling "robert jones vc." In 1879, there was no provision for the posthumous granting of the Victoria Cross, and so it could not be awarded to anyone who had died in performing an act of bravery. Private Joseph Williams, B Coy, 2nd/24th Foot, was killed during the fight in the hospital and was mentioned in despatches that "had he lived he would have been recommended for the Victoria Cross." [53] On 15 January 1880, a submission for a DCM was also made for Private Michael McMahon ( Army Hospital Corps). The submission was cancelled on 29 January 1880 for absence without leave and theft. [54] Depictions and dramatisations [ edit ] Illustration by C. H. M. Kerr for Haggard's story, 1893 Yes, the 24th's depot had been moved to Brecon by the government in 1873, but both battalions of the regiment had never been there when the Zulu war started in 1879, and both battalions consisted of long term service men, meaning that it would have been well after Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift before newly trained recruits would have started to filter through to the ranks. By the beginning of the Anglo-Zulu campaign in January 1879 NEITHER battalion had spent time in Brecon. The 1st battalion, moreover, still contained a high proportion of older, experienced men woh had joined under the 'long service' system that had prevailed BEFORE the establishment of the Brecon depot. The recent time spent at home by the 2nd battalion was reflected in a higher proportion of young recruits who had joined under the 'short service' system. Since the 1st battalion had been at the Cape, a number of men had left it on the expiry of their term of enlistment, and had been replaced by drafts from home; despite this, any MARGINAL increase in the Welsh character of the regiment had fallen rather to the 2nd battalion. In fact, however, where records are available - and they are not always complete or reliable - they suggest there were VERY FEW Welshmen in either battalion during the war. Of the men of the 2/24 who defended Rorke's Drift (B company, together with a handful of patients in the hospital) whose regional origins are known with any certainty, 62 were from England (including 5 from Monmouthshire), 25 were from Ireland and 17 from Wales.

The 1st battalion, 24th regiment, spent much of the 1870's in Mediterranean garrisons - Malta and Gibraltar - before being despatched directly to South Africa in November 1874. The 2nd battalion was based in Aldershot in 1874, Dover from August 1875 and Chatham from 1877 prior to its departure for the Cape in February 1878. Throughout that time both battalions continued to receive recruits through the efforts of recruiting sergeants ACCROSS THE COUNTRY, although there had been a SLIGHT increase in recruits from the area covered by the district depot as a result of its association with the local malitia.H. Rider Haggard's true account, "The Tale of Isandhlwana and Rorke's Drift", published in Andrew Lang's True Story Book (1894), [55] names many important figures but omits Surgeon Reynolds, who played a crucial role in the defence. [56] It never ceases to amaze me how some people have become totally fixated by the number of Welshmen at Rorke’s Drift. Why did they sing 'Men of Harlech' if it was not to add to the impression that it was a Welsh regiment? It was the thought of that implacable church and its obvious disgust for me … I had learnt this day that God was…a cut above the class to which we belonged. That day, I think, the painter was loosed from its mooring and my faith began a slow drift into non-belief (Prebble 1993: 96).