Showing posts with label Zulu War Graves. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zulu War Graves. Show all posts
Sunday, 2 October 2022
Death of the Prince Imperial
One of the strangest stories from the 1879 Anglo Zulu War is the death of the Prince Inperial Louis Napoleon .
After his father Napoleon 111 was dethroned in1870 he moved with his family to England When his father died in 1873 Louis was he was declared Napoleon IV . Wanting to be recognised for his military skills he with the help of his mother Empress Eugenie and his God Mother Queen Victoria he managed to get sent to join the British Forces in the Zulu Land for the second Invaasion , being headstrong and reckless he was almost killed on one patrol when on 1st June 1879 on apatrol led by Captain Jaheel Carey they were ambushed and in the attempt to escape Napoleon was killed in hand to hand combat with a group of Zulus .
Many books give the full account my favourite is " with his face to the Foe " by Ian Knight but many others cover the episode .
I was lucky enough to visit the monument to Louis and the graves of those who died with him { Louis was brought back for buriel in England }.
I have built the benito 54mm Diorama representing Napoleons last moments below are some in progress pictures and the finished diorama
This fascinating piece of history has been the subject of many books ,two in my collection are the Ian Knight book I mentioned earlier and Captain Careys blunder by Donald Featherstone a nice read but very dated with lots of mistakes .
Monday, 21 September 2020
Zulu War Graves
Another recent trip to Wales allowed us to track down a few more Rorkes Drift Defenders final resting places ,2 of them Murphy and Saxty buried in St Woolas Newport we have tried twice before to find with no luck ,this time Andy Lee direceted us in the right direction .We also got to pay respects to William Partridge .Samual Pitt ,John Connolly , David Lewis (James Owen) David Jenkins and Evan Jones ,we also had time to visit James Taylor again as since wwe visited afew years ago he hashad a new marker over his grave.
Monday, 21 October 2019
LT -Col Henry Pulleine
Over the weekend we visited the memorial to Henry Pulleine , the commander of the forces left at Isandlwana ,often blamed for the disaster in full or partly With Col Darnford .He is buried with his men somewhere on the Isandlwana battle field, but there is a great memorial stone in Kirby Wiske ,in what was his fathers church yard .
| Lieutenant ColonelHenry Burmester Pulleine |
| As played by Denholm Elliott in the underated Zulu Dawn |
| Some of the many cairns on the Battlefield |
| The Infamous Mountain |
| Close up of the inscription |
| The Memorial in Yorkshire has a bit of a lean now |
Sunday, 4 August 2019
Rorkes Drift defenders -3 more Graves visited
On our recent trip to Brecon we managed to visit more Rorkes Drift defenders graves ,the 1st was Edmund (Edward )Savage who passed away in 1893 and is buried at St Cathays Cardiff ,the second James Hagan who died in 1916 and is buried at Glyntaff in Pontyprid.The last was Gunner Abraham Evans who passed in 1915 he is buried at Varteg Chapel near pontypool ,this was our second attempt to find Abraham our first visit the entire site was waist deep in nettles this time most of the area had been cleared. Three more of the lesser known heroes of that heroic fight.
Sunday, 31 March 2019
The Cultural Experince Zululand Tour - a review
The tour I have described over the last few posts was for me abucket list item ,not only visiting the AZW battlefelds but also meeting Ian Knight not the cheapest holiday and there are cheaper tours to Zululand but they do not cover as much .
Pre Holiday - Great service from TCE and we received a fantastic holiday itinerary booklet which contains a very in depth guide to the Zulu war by Ian Knight containg some nice maps .
Flights - the flights from and to the UK as well as the internal flight to Durban were all BA and included meals and drinks , a very long flight I don't fly very well but others were snoring away for most of the 12 hours .
The Guide -What can I say Ian Knight is a fantastic guy ,not only full of expert knowledge but has areal passion for his subject ,his talks were informative and funny at the right points and he was excellent company during our down time , Paul the tour manager teeamed up with us at Durban and again was abrilliant guy , ex SA army and an architect by trade who only does the tours because of his love of the subject and his friendship with Ian ,again a great man to talk with full of amazing stories and again a brilliant sense of humour .Our driver April was a very intelligent guy speaking 11 languages and was full of fun and soon like one of the gang .
Hotels - all amazing ,the staff ,food and accomodation all top rate ,first we stopped at Princes Grant a very upmarket golfing hotel set on the Indian Ocean , next Shakaland the cultural village built for the TV series Shaka Zulu set in the area were Shaka ruled ,then Itahla game reserve it was amazing waking up with the wildlife outside your doors to greet you and finally Isandlwana lodge where you were made to feel like part of the family and again 5 star service .Remeber though that this is Africa nd we did have afew power cuts ,internet is almost non existent and there are bugs,retiles and animals which are frequent visitors to the rooms . Rooms ,all meals ( which were superb) and drinks with meals are included .
The Tours - Amazing , we saw all the big battle sites and places of interest plus almost every day we took short detours to take in remote graves or vantage points used by the armies and Ians stories just brought it all together superbly .All museum and entrance fees are included .We also saw alot of modern Zulu life which has not changed much in the last 100 years and we had am amazing evening safari included as well .
At Rorkes Drift I sat and listened to another companies tour guide give a full description of the war from start to finish ,it took him 22 minutes ,answered no questions and included some real school boy errors so beware other trips?
Africa is wonderful ,the scenery the people ,the animals ,each night we sat and watched electrical storms light up the night sky ,really beautiful ,BUT the trip does have adown side ,its very energetic dont attempt it if you cant walk far or over very rugged ground , you need to take good wide brimmed hats ,lots of factor 50 sun screen and bug repellent ,long trousers and long socks with good walking boots .
I can only say do this trip if you have a serious interest in the AZW ,save up for it you wont regret it at all .
the link to the 2020 tour
https://www.theculturalexperience.com/tours/the-zulu-war-battlefield-tour/?sid=1cd9f5313ac9718d7070a8c50da62d16
Pre Holiday - Great service from TCE and we received a fantastic holiday itinerary booklet which contains a very in depth guide to the Zulu war by Ian Knight containg some nice maps .
Flights - the flights from and to the UK as well as the internal flight to Durban were all BA and included meals and drinks , a very long flight I don't fly very well but others were snoring away for most of the 12 hours .
The Guide -What can I say Ian Knight is a fantastic guy ,not only full of expert knowledge but has areal passion for his subject ,his talks were informative and funny at the right points and he was excellent company during our down time , Paul the tour manager teeamed up with us at Durban and again was abrilliant guy , ex SA army and an architect by trade who only does the tours because of his love of the subject and his friendship with Ian ,again a great man to talk with full of amazing stories and again a brilliant sense of humour .Our driver April was a very intelligent guy speaking 11 languages and was full of fun and soon like one of the gang .
Hotels - all amazing ,the staff ,food and accomodation all top rate ,first we stopped at Princes Grant a very upmarket golfing hotel set on the Indian Ocean , next Shakaland the cultural village built for the TV series Shaka Zulu set in the area were Shaka ruled ,then Itahla game reserve it was amazing waking up with the wildlife outside your doors to greet you and finally Isandlwana lodge where you were made to feel like part of the family and again 5 star service .Remeber though that this is Africa nd we did have afew power cuts ,internet is almost non existent and there are bugs,retiles and animals which are frequent visitors to the rooms . Rooms ,all meals ( which were superb) and drinks with meals are included .
The Tours - Amazing , we saw all the big battle sites and places of interest plus almost every day we took short detours to take in remote graves or vantage points used by the armies and Ians stories just brought it all together superbly .All museum and entrance fees are included .We also saw alot of modern Zulu life which has not changed much in the last 100 years and we had am amazing evening safari included as well .
At Rorkes Drift I sat and listened to another companies tour guide give a full description of the war from start to finish ,it took him 22 minutes ,answered no questions and included some real school boy errors so beware other trips?
Africa is wonderful ,the scenery the people ,the animals ,each night we sat and watched electrical storms light up the night sky ,really beautiful ,BUT the trip does have adown side ,its very energetic dont attempt it if you cant walk far or over very rugged ground , you need to take good wide brimmed hats ,lots of factor 50 sun screen and bug repellent ,long trousers and long socks with good walking boots .
I can only say do this trip if you have a serious interest in the AZW ,save up for it you wont regret it at all .
the link to the 2020 tour
https://www.theculturalexperience.com/tours/the-zulu-war-battlefield-tour/?sid=1cd9f5313ac9718d7070a8c50da62d16
Zululand Tour -day 13 Helpmekaar & Boer War
Our final day and a long journey to the airport , we said our sad farewells ro Roz and the staff at Isandlwana and set off ,as it was along journey Ian and Paul broke it up with afew unadvertised stops ,firstly a quick drop in at Rorkes Drift so a few of the group could get a couple of pics they missed ,then we drove to Helpmekaar , the staging post for Chelmsfords men before they moved to Rorkes Drift and where most of the survivors fom Isandlwana made for .Helpmekaar is Afrikans for "help each other " which refers to the transport "road" the trekkers built to ais each other up and down the hill to Helpmekaar ,today its a small village which is mainly abandoned stores and a large police station ,the military grave yard is behind this but you have to undertake a very rough walk to get to it crossing the police firing range , the graveyard is mainly troops who died of disease during the war .Next we travelled through Boer war country glimpsing Laings Nek before stopping at Majuba hill for a picnic lunch and a brief talk by Ian on the Boer war ,again this site was/is used by white supremacist types for meetings and had some very Nazi like sysmbols on the entrance gate . Finally the airport and home .An amazing experience .
| Our Final Night at Isandlwana lodge |
| some of the amazing staff preparing our farewell meal |
| and us doing our bit by eating it |
| Our Groupstanding L-R Andy -Richmond-me -ElaineLarry -Jack_Andrew-Tim Kneeling Ian Knight -April-Paul Murais |
| The graves at Helpmekaar |
| The derelict buildings make the palce quite spooky |
| The transport road built by trekkers where Helpmekaar got its name |
| The terrrain leading to Helpmekaar |
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