VETERAN OF ZULU WAR.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 3 April 1929, Page 9

VETERAN OF ZULU WAR.

GREAT slaughter recalled. J 1 hard ride with despatches. 1 The fiftieth anniversary of the d-Ls- ‘ .aster of I sandhi waiia, in tlio Zulu A\ ar occurred recently, and one of the few . ijiviiiv survivors "of this sanguinary ellgagement is Mr Charles Montague Eitzi'oy Sparks, hale and hearty, vet-. < ran of 75, a Londoner by birth, whoa familiar figure in Durban. When the Zulu War broke out Mr Sparks was a. first-class trooper m the Natal Mounted Police-, and was among the troops? under the command of Lord Chelmsford ait the camp- of Lsaiidhlwana. On the morning of January 1879 Lord Chelmsford moved out or camp with a- strong force to attack a i ar o-e body of Zulus who were located 19 "miles awav. In the absence of the main bed- of'British troops, the enemy swooped down on the camp m overwhelming numbers and shr lightered the defenders. . Mr Sparks was on outpost dut\ with a handful of comrades, and was fortunate in escaping with Ins me. A.ftor the disaster he rode from Help- ; makaar to Maritzburg, a distance of i'about 115 miles, with Lord Chelms- , ford’s official despatches. He used

three horse® on the journey, one of which died under him as a result of the excessive speed at which he was obliged to travel. When he arrived ait Government House, Mairitzburg, Ills uniform was tattered .and torn, and Iris face and- hands a.IA bloody and grimy from the battlefield. It was with difficulty that be secured admittance to the presence of the High Commissioner, Sir Barilo Frere, to hand over the despatches. Mr Sparks had the honour of relating to the High Commissioner a description of the 1 battle 1 . i During the Great War, when Mr\ Sparks was 63, he gave his age as 35 and went to France as a colour-sergft. in the South African Native Labour Corps. “It cost me 16s to get my hail' dvedl and the wrinkles taken from my fare,” be stated, “but it was worth it-.”’