DEEDS OF VAL'OUR.

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18849, 20 January 1933, Page 4

DEEDS OF VAL'OUR.

RORKE’S DRIFT DEFENCE.

AWARD OF EIGHT V.C’s. LAST SURVIVOR’S DEATH. Private John Williams, formerly of the 2nd Battalion, 2-ith Foot, now the South Wales Borderers, who died at Cwmbran, Monmouthshire, on November 25, at the age of 75, won the Victoria Cross in the Zulu War of 1879 for the gallant part he played in the defence of Rorke's ' Drift on the night of January 22-23. Eight Victoria Crosses altogether were awarded for this affair, and Mr Williams was the last survivor. Mr Williams was born at Abergavenny on May 24, 1857. His real name was Fielding, but lie took the name of Williams when he ran away from home to enlist in 1877. Rorke’s Drift was a post guarding the crossing on the Buffalo River on the road to Natal, and after the disaster of Isandlwana it was held by about 80 men of the 24th Regiment, under Lieutenant Bromhead, with a few volunteers and departmental officers, the whole under Lieutenant Chard, R.E.

On January 2'2 news arrived that a strong force of the enemy was marching on Rorke’s Drift. It was a mission station consisting of two buildings standing about 30 yards apart, at the time used as a hospital and containing a number of wounded and convalescent soldiers. For the defence a laager was formed by connecting the two small buildings by barricades 4ft high, constructed with bags of mealies and biscuit-boxes. By an act of foresight which eventually saved the little force from complete annihiliatlon the laager was divided in-' to two by a transverse barricade, butowing to the shortage of time part of the barricade in one half of Hie laager had to be left uncompleted.

Serious Defect in the Defence. It was at this point that the fiercest fighting took place, the mission •orchard adjoining this gap affording cover to the enemy. But a more serious defect in the defence was the fact that the exits of the two mission buildings forming the two ends or extensions of the laager faced the enemy, and not the laager. - With the exception of a small window opening on the laager, no communication was possible between the hospital inmates and their comrades. Private John Williams and two other men in charge of three patients were posted in one of these isolated rooms. For an hour the door of this room was held against the enemy, while Williams made a hole in me partition with a pickaxe. At length the Zulus forced the door and dragged out Williams’ two comrades and a patient, killing all three. Meanwhile, Williams had succeeded in getting through the hole in the wall the other two patients into the next room, where he joined Private Henry Hook, of the same regiment who had six wounded men under his care.. Three rooms still lay between the pursued and their refuge, all of which had to be entered in a similar manner—namely, by Williams’ pickaxe, while Hook covered the retreat. Meanwhile, the Zulus had set fire to the roof of the building, filling the interior with smoke, which made escape still more difficult.

Value of the Pickaxe. Finally the last room that separated the Zulus from the laager was reached, and here the defenders found their only means of exit was through the small window already mentioned. By aid of the pickaxe this opening was sufficiently enlarged to allow Williams to assist the patients through into the laager, followed by the gallant Hook, who had all along covered their retreat. Private Williams was discharged from the Reserve in 1893, but rejoined for the duration of the war, serving at the depot at Brecon. He was at the dinner of V.C.’s organised by the British Legion on November 9, 1929, at which the Prince of Wales was present. Of the other V.C.’s of Rorke’s Drift, Lieutenant (afterward colonel) Chard died in 1897; Lieutenant (afterward major) Bromhead, in 1891; Private Henry llook, later in the service or the .British Museum,, jn 1905; Privates William and Robert Jones, who were in another ward of the hospital, after 1920 and in 1898 respectively; and Corporal William Allen and Private Frederick Hitch, who maintained communication with the hospital, in IS9O and 1915 respectively.