143 years ago today 22nd January 1879, 150 British and colonial troops engaged in the defence of the mission station of Rorke's Drift.
143 years ago today 22nd January 1879, 150 British and colonial troops engaged in the defence of the mission station of Rorke's Drift. The men won Eleven Victoria Crosses, along with a number of other decorations and honours, and at the same time. The small force who successfully held off an army of 4,000 Zulu warriors were under the command of Lieutenants John Chard of the Royal Engineers and Gonville Bromhead. Zulu, the 1964 British epic war film features: Stanley Baker as Lieutenant John Chard, and Michael Caine (in his first major role) as Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead. One of the commanding Lieutenants John Rouse Merriott Chard is pictured here wearing his Victoria Cross Born near the naval base at Plymouth in Devon, John Rouse Merriott Chard graduated from the Royal Military Academy as an engineer in 1868. A man with an impressive mustache, Chard travelled the islands of the British Empire, overseeing fortifications, before finally being sent to Southern Africa. Soon after he...