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Eve of Distinction by Mark Churms
Lt. John Rouse Merriot Chard, Royal Engineers.
On
January 22nd 1879, during the Zulu War, the small British field hospital and
supply depot at Rorkes Drift in Natal was the site of one of the most heroic
military defences of all time. Manned by 140 troops of the 24th Regiment, led by
Lieutenant John Chard of the Royal Engineers, the camp was attacke by a
well-trained and well-equipped Zulu army of 4000 men, heartened by the great
Zulu victory over the British forces at Isandhlwana earlier on the same day. The
battle began in mid afternoon, when British remnants of the defeat at
Isandhlwana struggled into the camp. Anticipating trouble, Chard set his small
force to guard the perimeter fence but, when the Zulu attack began, the Zulus
came faster than the British could shoot and the camp was soon overcome. The
thatched roof of the hospital was fired by Zulu spears wrapped in burning grass
and even some of the sick and the dying were dragged from their beds and pressed
into the desperate hand-to-hand fighting. Eventually, Chard gave the order to
withdraw from the perimeter and to take position in a smaller compound,
protected by a hastily assembled barricade of boxes and it was from behind this
barricade that the garrison fought for their lives throughout the night. After
twelve hours of battle, the camp was destroyed, the hospital had burned to the
ground, seventeen British lay dead and ten were wounded. However, the Zulus had
been repulsed and over 400 of their men killed. The Battle of Rorkes Drift is
one of the greatest examples of bravery and heroism in British military history.
Nine men were awarded Distinguished Conduct Medals, and eleven, the most ever
given for a single battle, received the highest military honour of all, the
Victoria Cross.
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