Private
William Jones VC wins his Victoria Cross for evacuating patients from
the burning hospital at Rorke's Drift. Private William Jones is shown in
Zulu War paintings by Mark Churms and Stuart Liptrot.
Private Robert Jones. Decorated for
conspicuous bravery and devotion to the wounded at Rorke's drift.
Private Robert and William Jones, posted in a room of the Hospital
facing the hill, kept up a steady fire against enormous odds, and while
one worked to cut a hole through the partition into the next room, the
other shot Zulu after Zulu through the loophooled walls, using his own
and his comrades rifle alternatively when the barrels became to hot to
hold owing to the incessant firing. By their united heroic efforts six
out of the seven patients were saved by being carried through the broken
partition. the seventh, sergeant Maxwell being delirious, refused to be
helped, and on Robert Jones re turning to take him by force he found him
being stabbed by the Zulus in his bed, Robert Jones died in Peterchurch
Herefordshire in 1898. . Both men were awarded the Victoria
Cross
Last Man Out by Mark Churms.
Private Robert Jones. Decorated for conspicuous bravery and devotion to the wounded at Rorkes drift. Private Robert and William Jones, posted in a room of the Hospital facing the hill, kept up a steady fire against enormous odds, and while one worked to cut a hole through the partition into the next room, the other shot Zulu after Zulu through the loophooled walls, using his own and his comrades rifle alternatively when the barrels became to hot to hold owing to the incessant firing. By their united heroic efforts six out of the seven patients were saved by being carried through the broken partition. the seventh, sergeant Maxwell being delirious, refused to be helped, and on Robert Jones returning to take him by force he found him being stabbed by the Zulus in his bed, Robert Jones died in 1898 in Peterchurch Herefordshire . Both men were awarded the Victoria Cross.
Private William Jones VC is shown in the art print standing in fornt of the doorway in the hospital as the Zulu warriors break into the hospital and rush the entrance. Private Robert Jones. Decorated for conspicuous bravery and devotion to the wounded at Rorkes drift. Private Robert and William Jones, posted in a room of the Hospital facing the hill, kept up a steady fire against enormous odds, and while one worked to cut a hole through the partition into the next room, the other shot Zulu after Zulu through the loophooled walls, using his own and his comrades rifle alternatively when the barrels became to hot to hold owing to the incessant firing. By their united heroic efforts six out of the seven patients were saved by being carried through the broken partition. the seventh, sergeant Maxwell being delirious, refused to be helped, and on Robert Jones returning to take him by force he found him being stabbed by the Zulus in his bed, Robert Jones died in 1898 in Peterchurch Hereford.........
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.
