Stossel - A handful of heroes : Rokes drift--facts, myths and legends

First published in Great Britain in 2015 by
PEN & SWORD MILITARY
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
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Copyright Katie Stossel, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-47382-822-3
EPUB ISBN: 978-1-47386-411-5
PRC ISBN: 978-1-47386-410-8

The right of Katie Stossel to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Contents

by Brian Best

List of Plates

Sister Janets decorations and medals.

List of Figures

List of Tables

Foreword

by Brian Best
Chairman, The Victoria Cross Society

Military victories have long been defining moments in our nations history and Rorkes Drift is a classic example which is well understood by both civilians and military alike. Today, Rorkes Drift ranks as one of the most visited British battlefields in the world. Over the years, historians and researchers have studied the engagement between the British and Zulus at Rorkes Drift, yet, in terms of military action and the half-dozen major battles that took place during the Anglo-Zulu War, few have acknowledged Rorkes Drift for what it was a short sharp minor engagement lasting just a few hours with barely a hundred soldiers engaged. As will be discussed, the military in South Africa initially took the event in their stride. The press and politicians at home then created an air of resentment and incredulity amongst the survivors fellow officers and soldiers when the survivors status was elevated to that of popular heroes.

The site of the action at Rorkes Drift was originally a remote trading post established in 1849 by an Irishman, James Rorke, and is located on the border between Zululand and British Natal. Rorke died in October 1875 when, according to local legend, his supply of gin ran out and in a fit of rage he shot himself. The site was then purchased by Swedish missionaries to be used as a Mission. The incumbent Swedish missionary, Reverend Otto Witt, had converted Rorkes bungalow into his own residence and turned the store into a school-cum-store. Two weeks before the British invasion of Zululand the British had commandeered the site, converting the building into a military store and Witts home into a temporary hospital for the invasion columns thirty already sick and injured soldiers.

The day of 22 January 1879 witnessed the unbelievable and dreadful defeat of the main British invasion force advancing into Zululand by the Zulu army at Isandlwana. On the same day, the victorious Zulus moved to attack the isolated and insignificant British outpost located just 200 yards on the Natal side of the border at Rorkes Drift. It was a small tempting target which the victorious Zulus could see less than 10 miles away. Britains well-founded international reputation and that of its army was suddenly at stake. Then, the mornings disaster and fearful losses at Isandlwana were quickly offset for the British by the survival of the Rorkes Drift garrison later that same day, when it was attacked by overwhelming Zulu forces. The astonishing survival of this hopelessly outnumbered force after an unsuccessful 12-hour siege, gave the desperate home government the perfect excuse to diminish the political and military fallout from Isandlwana.

For a few months, carefully orchestrated reports by those in power overwhelmed the nations imagination, encouraging the national press with a steady flow of glowing accounts of the small and heavily outnumbered unit of British redcoats desperately fighting for their lives and of their survival against all odds. Regardless of the high-profile newspaper accounts of the engagement, however, the Zulu War never appealed to the public, who widely disapproved of it, especially when it was learned that Britain had invaded the small friendly country of Zululand on the fabricated pretext that the Zulus were about to attack British-controlled Natal which they were not. The Anglo-Zulu war was a short-lived affair lasting just six months and involving only a relatively small number of British troops, but the successful and overpowering British re-invasion of Zululand a few months later in May swiftly crushed the Zulu army and destroyed their nations political structure. Nevertheless, the succession of hard-to-believe defeats sustained by the British at the hands of the ill-equipped Zulus during this short South African campaign emboldened Britains enemies, especially the neighbouring Boers, who were still bitter at the recent British annexation of their country, the Transvaal. The Boers secretly began forming groups known as commandos, and arming themselves with the latest European rifles. By the end of 1879 though, events in South Africa were dwindling to a distant memory for the British, whose foreign policy was fast becoming overshadowed by the recurrence of armed violence in Afghanistan.

At first glance it is difficult to see why the modern perception of Rorkes Drift is one of such national pride. After all, the incident was the consequence of a small, insignificant and peaceful nation making a brave stand against being invaded by the worlds most powerful Empire. Today, the British Army celebrate each anniversary of Rorkes Drift as a great victory in military history, yet any greater awareness of what actually happened at this engagement is relatively recent. For example, when in March 1914 General Sir Reginald Hart VC unveiled the 24th regimental obelisk on the Isandlwana battlefield, where the Zulu army destroyed the British invasion force before moving on to attack Rorkes Drift, he omitted any mention of Rorkes Drift when writing of the battle of Isandlwana:

The terrible disaster that overwhelmed the old 24th regiment will always be remembered not so much as a disaster, but as an example of heroism like that of Leonidas and the three hundred Spartans who fell at the pass of Thermopylae.

There can be no higher praise. Yet curiously, and except in passing, Rorkes Drift was not unduly acknowledged in any contemporary works dealing with the Anglo-Zulu war, even though Queen Victoria appreciated that the role of public opinion had become ever more important in sustaining support for such adventures. The official ratcheting-up of publicity that accompanied the generous distribution of decorations and medals after Rorkes Drift only temporarily kept public opinion on board.

Even in Victorian times the British invasion of Zululand must have ranked among the most ruthless treatment that any nation had the misfortune to suffer. In modern times, it is no longer fashionable to take pride in the pointless invasion and destruction of a comparatively unsophisticated and harmless country, especially with an invasion so brutally conducted. Yet today, the defence of Rorkes Drift is widely considered as one of the greatest episodes of British military history although it was all but forgotten until 1964, when the film