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The Zulu wars

Phil Carradice — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 14:23:26 +0000

There has always been something of a debate about the Anglo-Zulu Wars of 1879, particularly with regard to the numbers of Welsh soldiers involved in the Battle of Isandlwana and at the defense of Rorke's Drift.

Battlefield at Isandlwana. Photo by Trudy Carradice.

Often legend and romance have taken over from reality. If you have ever watched the film Zulu, for example, you could be excused for thinking that the action at Rorke's Drift was carried out by a Welsh male voice choir led by Stanley Baker, Michael Caine and Ivor Emmanuel!

Arguments have ranged widely across the spectrum - there were few Welsh soldiers present; the British regiments were predominantly Welsh based. And so on.

From looking at the regimental rolls it is clear that a Welsh-based regiment bore the brunt of the fighting, particularly at Rorke's Drift, and from the letters and statements of many of the soldiers themselves it is equally apparent that the events on the African veldt in 1879 would come back to haunt the men for many years to come.

It was a war that should never have been fought. The British government had little stomach for a fight with the Zulu tribes. Britain was already engaged in costly campaigns in Afghanistan and the thought of further expense in South Africa was not one to be taken lightly.

However, administrators out in South Africa, particularly the new British High Commissioner Sir Bartle Frere, saw the Zulus as a threat to British control and determined on war in order to create a federation of states rather like the one in Canada.

For their part, the Zulus had no reason to allow their traditional homelands - areas rich in coal and other minerals - to be taken from them.

The Zulu king, Cetshwayo, was presented with a deliberately harsh ultimatum - lay down your arms by 12 January 1879 or face invasion. The concept of "the warrior" was central to Zulu culture and Bartle Frere knew that the ultimatum could only be ignored.

On 12 January, the very day it expired, Lord Chelmsford took his column across the Buffalo River into Zululand. Prominent in the column of marching men was the 24th Regiment of Foot.

At the time of the Anglo-Zulu War, the 24th Regiment was known as the Warwickshires, the area from which they had originated, but by 1879 their home base was at Brecon and within a few years the regiment would change its name to The South Wales Borderers.

About 30% of the regiment was Welsh, the 24th regularly recruiting in Breconshire, Radnorshire and Monmouthshire. Soldiers were even recruited from places like Caernarfon.

Using his native Welsh tongue, Private Owen Ellis wrote to his parents in North Wales on the eve of the campaign:

"The 2nd Battalion of the 24th arrived here about 4 o'clock on Sunday afternoon and the 1st Battalion welcomed them by treating them to bread, tea and meat - - - If Cetshwayo does not come to terms we will demand his lands, kill his people as they cross our path and burn all his kraals or villages."

A few weeks later Owen was to write his last ever letter, on 19 January 1879:

"It is now Sunday afternoon, just after dinner, and I am sitting on a small box to write you these few lines. We are moving off at 6am tomorrow. I only wishes [sic] they would finish this row so that I might go to some town and see something else besides grassland. Dear father, perhaps I shall have to go a long time after this without writing, so don't be worried if you don't hear from me."

Owen Ellis was one of over 1,300 soldiers massacred by the Zulu impi at the Battle of Isandlwana on 22 January.

There were many reasons for the defeat - Chelmsford had split his force, taking half of them away to search for the Zulu army; nobody knew where the Zulus actually were; no effective defensive line had been created; the front line of soldiers was too extended and too far away from ammunition.

Whatever the reasons it was one of the worst defeats ever suffered by British colonial troops and many of the dead were young Welshmen. And we should never forget, of course, that close on 4,000 Zulus also died in the battle.

When Lord Chelmsford and his half of the invasion force returned to Isandlwana they were met by an horrific sight, as Private William Meredith of Pontypool noted in a letter to his brother:

"I could describe the battlefield to you - the sooner I get it off my mind the better. Over a thousand white men lying on the field, cut to pieces and stripped naked. Even the little boys that we had in the band, they were hung up and opened like sheep. These are the Pontypool boys that got killed in battle: Alf Farr, Dick Treverton and Charley Long."

For some of the men the sight was just too horrible. Some, like Henry Moses, also of Pontypool, began to reflect on their future and on what had brought them to this:

"I know what soldiering is now. We are in fear every night and have had to fight the Zulus. Dear father and sisters and brothers, goodbye. We may never meet again. I repent the day that I took the shilling."

Hospital at Rorke's Drift. Photo by Trudy Carradice.

The Zulus next target was the hospital base at Rorke's Drift. The story of the heroic defence is too well known to require re-telling here. The action took place over the night of 22/23 January, approximately 4,000 Zulu warriors attacking the hospital and mission station that was defended by just over 100 men. And it is clear that a large number of these defenders were Welshmen.

It was a desperate struggle that saw nearly 500 Zulu casualties for the loss of just 17 soldiers of the 24th Foot.

As Private Henry Hook was to later write to his mother in Monmouth:

"Every man fought dearly for his life. We were all determined to sell our lives like soldiers and to keep up the credit of our regiment."

The result of the battle was a victory for the 24th and several of the Welsh soldiers, men who survived the action, now lie buried in their native soil.

John Fielding, who won the Victoria Cross for his bravery that night (one of 11 won during the battle), is buried at Llantarnam. He had enlisted under the name John Williams as he was technically under age and his parents did not approve of him taking the Queen's shilling.

John Fielding lived to a ripe old age, dying in 1932, but others, like Robert Jones, another VC winner, suffered from headaches and nightmares for the rest of his life:

"I found a crowd (of Zulus) in front of the hospital and coming into our doorway. We crossed our bayonets and as fast as they came up to the doorway we bayoneted them until the doorway was nearly filled with dead and wounded Zulus. I had three assegi wounds."

Unable to cope with the stresses and strains of life after Rorke's Drift, at the age of 41 Robert Jones gave up the struggle and killed himself.

The Battles of Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift are a story of carnage and bravery - on both sides. If you want to hear more about the events listen to Past Master on Sunday 16 January at 5.30pm.

Korea Remembered

James Roberts — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 09:51:31 +0000

Sixty years ago thousands of British servicemen went to war in a far away land. On 25 June 1950 communist-backed North Korean forces invaded South Korea, triggering a global military conflict just five years after the cessation of the Second World War.

Following the division of the Korean peninsula in 1945, several years of bloody clashes erupted along the disputed 38th parallel. Then, on 25 June 1950 Korea was invaded by the North Korean People's Army.

As the northern communist force blitzed southwards throughout the peninsula, the United States-led administration in the south called on the United Nations Security Council to invoke the UN Charter, thus branding the North Koreans as aggressors. American troops were then massed against the northern invasion with the British government and Commonwealth forces joining in kind. This Included many Welshmen.

Welsh involvement in Korea is focused on in a BBC Radio Wales documentary narrated by Falkland's War Veteran, Simon Weston. Korea Remembered features Bernard Tucker, Grenville Holiday, Danny Simpson, John Morgan, Jim Angel and Meirion Davies; all from the Welsh branches of the British Korean Veterans Association. They all fought under the United Nations banner in Korea. They offer their moving experiences and memories.

The Korean War is often airbrushed from the collective memory. Coming so soon after the bloodshed and upheaval of the World War Two it seems too much to take in. Despite this, the chaotic events that took place between June 1950 and July 1953, on the ground, in the air and at sea in the distant land of Korea would shape Cold War polemic between the United States and the Soviet Union for the next 50 years. Korea was the Cold War coming to the boil.

With Chinese support and Soviet military hardware North Korea and her allies faced the mechanised war machines from 22 members of the United Nations. The conflict followed a pattern of give and take, characterised by heavily fortified stalemate and heavy military and civilian losses on both sides.

Danny Simpson, who now lives in Pontardulais, was in Korea for 16 months with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. In Korea Remembered, he reveals an insight into the harsh extremities of a Korean winter.

"It was a terrible place, end of story. Thirty degrees below in the winter - if you were working on vehicles or recovering stuff you were cold," says Danny.

"If you dropped a spanner and tried to pick it up the next morning your hands would freeze to it. The tanks' tracks would freeze to the ground, they had to be moved continually backwards and forwards, engines were started up every half hour or so otherwise they would just seize up, solid."

Bernard Tucker, from Maindy in Newport, served with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and the Royal Fusiliers City of London Regiment. He describes some of the day-to-day grim misery of the dreaded trenches.

After just under a year of fierce fighting, scorched earth and frozen landscapes the allies had achieved air and naval supremacy. Despite this, deadlock prevailed on the ground. This led to talks around the conference table and armistice negotiations. These talks dragged for two years as the future of tens of thousands of communist prisoners and territorial gains could not be agreed upon.

Eventually, by July 1953 the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) was established on the border. It was heavily fortified and remains so today, 60 years later. Both sides withdrew from their fighting positions and a UN commission was set up to supervise the armistice.

By the time of the armistice, the United States lost around 40,000 troops; British forces lost over 1,000, with 2,674 wounded and 1,060 missing in action. United Nations losses totalled nearly 800,000, while it is estimated that up to two million died or went missing on the side of North Korea and her allies.

To this day North Korea, the world's only remaining Stalinist state, and first-world economy South Korea, are still officially in a state of war. Something the world is constantly reminded of. Korea Remembered sheds light on the stories of a few people who made an enormous sacrifice and live with the past every day.

Related content

BBC News: North Korea profile

BBC News: South Korea profile

The Cold War on BBC History

Korean War archive on British Pathé

Where did that come from?

Phil Carradice — Wed, 12 May 2010 11:16:27 +0000

Several of our common phrases or sayings have a Welsh origin. Welsh rabbit - or Welsh rarebit as it is known when served in posh restaurants - is, of course, melted cheese on toast, the cheese sometimes being mixed with eggs, milk and ale.

The dish dates from the sixteenth century when only rich landowners could afford to eat deer or birds from the Welsh game preserves. Many ordinary Welsh people were never able to taste delicacies such as rabbit in their entire lives. But they could afford cheese on toasted bread and jokingly referred to it as their Welsh rabbit. The term stuck.

Those same huge estates also gave us the saying "to eat humble pie." The rich squires and landowners ate the flesh of the deer they had hunted and disdainfully threw away the innards, the 'umbles as they were known, the liver, kidneys and so on. The poor took those 'umbles, baked them into a pie and so "ate 'umble pie." Over the centuries the letter h has been added to the word and it has come to mean admitting inferiority.

The phrase "spooning" dates from sixteenth century Wales when men courting young girls would have to sit under the watchful eye of the family. While sitting there, undoubtedly bored and fed up, they would carve a wooden spoon, complete with intricate patterns, which would be presented to the girl on the wedding day. Thus the Welsh Love Spoon and the term "spooning" came into existence.

One symbol, not a phrase but a gesture, that was always thought to originate with the Welsh has little credibility - which is sad, as it remains a good story. Welsh archers, particularly those from Monmouth, were considered to be the best in the world. The French, with whom the Hundred Years War was being fought, feared their accuracy. To keep captured prisoners was both time consuming and expensive as they had to be guarded and fed.

So when the French captured a Welsh archer they simply cut off the first two fingers of the hand that drew the bowstring and then sent the mutilated archer back to the English forces where such wounded men would be useless.

After the Battle of Agincourt, runs the story, the Welsh archers simply stood on a mound and waved their two fingers at the French prisoners in a gesture of defiance and, of course, as a warning. Unfortunately, the story has little substance.

Although the gesture, the V sign, has been identified on the Macclesfield Psalter of 1330 and, according to some writers from the time, even though Henry V referred to the French practice of cutting off the fingers of soldiers in his pre-battle speech before Agincourt, there is no evidence that such mutilation was ever carried out. Nor does anyone record the Welsh archers waving their two fingers in the air as a gesture of defiance.

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The Battle of St Fagans

Phil Carradice — Thu, 06 May 2010 11:37:33 +0000

Many Parliamentarian generals, upset and dissatisfied with the way things were going, soon changed sides, among them Rowland Laugharne, John Poyer and Rice Powell. They all now declared their loyalty to the king, despite having spent the previous five years trying their best to defeat him in battle.

Parliament was taken by surprise and the king's supporters quickly gained the upper hand in Wales. It was a short-lived success although, for a while, it seemed as if they were unstoppable and Laugharne, the most renowned and successful of the turncoat generals, found himself at the head of an army marching on Cardiff. Laugharne was reluctant to press too far, too quickly.

He knew that his position was not as strong as it seemed and the bulk of his army, though large, consisted mainly of 4000 eager but amateur volunteers. They were referred to as "clubmen" - quite literally, untrained soldiers armed only with clubs and billhooks. Opposing him were the highly professional and well-equipped Parliamentary forces of Colonel Horton. Knowing he had to seize the initiative, Laugharne decided on a surprise attack.

Shortly after 7am on the morning of May 8 he hurled 500 of his infantry against the Parliamentary outposts. It was something of a forlorn hope and the well-trained Parliamentarians quickly threw them back. Thereafter the battle degenerated into a hit and run affair, the Royalist forces trying to make stands behind the high hedges and the ditches of the area. Gradually, inexorably, the Parliamentary infantry and dragoons advanced and panic began to set in amongst the Royalist forces.

It was inevitable that the makeshift Royalist troops would break and within two hours, despite a desperate cavalry attack led by Roland Laugharne himself, the battle was over. Approximately 300 Royalists were killed, over 3000 were taken prisoner. Laugharne and his senior officers fled west where they barricaded themselves into Pembroke Castle, enduring an eight-week siege before Cromwell himself battered them into surrender.

Visitors to the modern museum at St Fagans can still walk the fields of the battle, even though the topography has changed somewhat over the years. Historical artefacts such as musket balls and buttons have been found in the area but the speed of the Parliamentarian victory and the nature of the battle, one of movement rather than a set piece slogging match, has meant that they are few and far between. Don't let that stop you looking as you walk the field of battle - you never know what you might find.

Battlefields of Wales

Phil Carradice — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 14:20:49 +0000

According to the writer Tacitus, the waters of the Menai Straits ran red with blood on the day of the battle as the Romans massacred every man, woman and child they could find.

Historical locations like Caerwent and Caerleon also undoubtedly saw many battles and skirmishes before the Romans finally abandoned Britain in the fifth century.

Almost any of Wales' castles - apart from Manorbier in Pembrokeshire, which seems to have been by-passed by history - saw violent military action. But it is in the wars between Edward I and Llywelyn, the Last Prince of Wales, that we find some of the most interesting and atmospheric battlefields.

In December 1282, Llywelyn left his traditional homelands in Gwynedd and went south to Builth Wells to recruit more soldiers for his desperate defence of Wales.

On December 11 1282, shortly after crossing the River Irfon outside the town, he and a small band of followers were surprised by a party of mounted English knights. Stephen de Francton plunged his lance into the body of an un-armoured Welsh soldier - only later did he realise that he had killed the last Prince of Wales.

During the English Civil War many battles fought on Welsh soil, none bloodier than the Battle of St Fagans which took place on May 8 1648 - the site of the battle can be seen when visiting the National Museum of Wales, St Fagans.

The siege of Pembroke Castle, following on the heels of the St Fagans battle, lasted for eight weeks, part of the siege being conducted by none other than Oliver Cromwell himself.

The Napoleonic Wars saw something of a "non-battle" when the French Legion Noire landed at Fishguard in February 1797. For three days they rolled in a drunken melee around north Pembrokeshire, out of control and with no idea of what they were supposed to do, before finally surrendering to Lord Cawdor.

There was no battle but several skirmishes took place and visitors can still visit the site of the French encampment and the farmhouse where the French leader, General Tate, had his headquarters.

The Royal Oak, the public house where the surrender was signed, lies in the middle of the town.

There is hardly a place in Wales that does not have some connection with the country's violent past. And whether it be a major battle or an event like the Rebecca Riots of the 1840s when workhouses and turnpikes across Wales were burned by men dressed in women's clothes, it remains a fascinating part of Welsh history.