Rorkes Drift

[Mutley]

You are quite right Martin. Apologies

I did not have the notes with me last night when I posted and I went to bed thinking, "I've got something wrong there"
It was W.E.'s father William born in 1846 that fought in South Africa!

He is listed on Ancestry in the
UK, Military Campaign Medal and Award Rolls, 1793-1949

Perhaps ddraigcelt could give us a name for the person he is interested in and we could check there.

P.S. thank you for the useful piece of information regarding the clasp.

[crimea1854]

Mutley

For information the 3/60th formed one face of the square that was attacked by the Zulus at the Battle of Gingindlovu.

Having looked at the census for 1891 I note that it was Alfred T who was born in South Africa, with Williams other children being born in Winchester, the 3/60th Depot town. A check of the Army Service Records on F*** my P*** returned two entries, one I think is Williams the other Alfreds.

Martin

[Mutley]

Mutley

For information the 3/60th formed one face of the square that was attacked by the Zulus at the Battle of Gingindlovu.

What a wonderful piece of information. Thank you so much, I know what I shall be doing on Google this morning..

Having looked at the census for 1891 I note that it was Alfred T who was born in South Africa, with Williams other children being born in Winchester, the 3/60th Depot town. A check of the Army Service Records on F*** my P*** returned two entries, one I think is Williams the other Alfreds.
Martin

That is them, seems to have been quite a military family. Wish they were mine but sadly not. The research is connected to an entry for the younger William on a village memorial.

[Mutley]

Although I seem to have hijacked this thread, apologies,
Martin has enabled me to find a link that may answer the original question.

Rorkes Drift. British Regiments:
B company, 2nd Battalion, 24th Foot: later the South Wales Borderers and now the Royal Regiment of Wales.
Men of the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, Army Service Corps, Commissariat and Medical Corps.

http://www.
britishbattles.com/zulu-war/rorkes-drift.htm

[PamG]

Mutley - re: your query about the movie that depicted Rorke's Drift - it was Zulu (1964) with Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins and "introducing" Michael Caine (although he had minor roles in other movies before this one).

The men in the movie were the South Wales Borderers, and were depicted as being primarily Welsh. The truth is they were actually the 24th Regiment of Foot (2nd Warwickshire), who were stationed in Brecon, but didn't become the South Wales Borderers for a couple of years after Rorke's Drift. There were some Welsh in the regiment, but not the majority shown in the film, despite a lot of hearty 'Men of Harlech' singing.

I just finished watching the movie a week ago, to supplement a Military Ancestors course I was taking, in which we had an assignment on researching a soldier from the battle of Rorke's Drift - I was assigned Gonville Bromhead, the 2nd in command (Michael Caine's charcter). It made fascinating research. And I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, despite its inaccuracies!

Pam

[Mutley]

Let us hope ddraigcelt replies to this thread regarding all the useful facts that have been given him.

Pam, Gonville Bromhead, an unusual name for a interesting man, I should imagine that was an enjoyable piece of research.

[ddraigcelt]

Thanks for the feedback guys but i think this as gone off the point of the original question. I'm talking about Rokes drift between 1899 and 1902 and whether a british outpost was there then and what regiments were stationed there. Cheers anyway for your input, much appreciated.

Mutley

I think you are getting two men with the same name mixed up. It is true that a WE Starman served during WW1 and received the MM. It is also true that he served in the army prior to the start of the war, I know this because he qualified for the 1914 clasp, which was only awarded to those men engaged with the Germans at the very start of the war, before mass mobilisation had started. All the medals you quote were awarded for service during WW1. The final clincher is that he was 32 when killed in 1918, which would give his date of birth as 1886 - the Zulu war being 1879.

The Regt. at Rorkes Drift was the 2/24th (South Wales Borderers) so that particular WE Starman was not present at that event.

Martin