Rorke's Drift By Those Who Were There (ePub)
Volume I
File Size: 40.8 MB (.epub)
Pages: 288
ISBN: 9781784388324
Published: 16th January 2023
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“The great host came steadily on, spreading out spreading out - spreading out till they seemed like a giant pair of nut-crackers opening round the little nut of Rorke’s Drift.” – Surgeon Major James Henry Reynolds V.C., Army Medical Department
On 22 January 1879, during the final hour of the Battle of Isandlwana – one of the greatest disasters ever to befall British troops during the Victorian era – a very different story was about to unfold a few miles away at the mission station of Rorke’s Drift. When a Zulu force of more than 3,000 warriors turned their attention to the small outpost, defended by around 150 British and Imperial troops, the odds of the British surviving were staggeringly low. The British victory that ensued, therefore, would go down as one of the most heroic actions of all time, and has enraptured military history enthusiasts for decades.
Featuring a wide range of first-hand accounts and testimonies from those present during the Battle of Rorke’s Drift, Rorke’s Drift By Those Who Were There is a remarkable work of Anglo-Zulu military history by those who know the topic best, Lee Stevenson and Ian Knight. This updated edition of the classic work of the same name includes even more first-person accounts from the combatants on both the British and Zulu sides.
Providing personal, microscopic accounts of events, while at the same time presenting a clear overview of the battle in its entirety, readers will gain an impressive, unique breadth of knowledge about one of the most awe-inspiring battles in British history.
As featured by
The Anglo-Zulu War Historical Society
5 out of 5
Army Rumour Service (ARRSE)
It is an excellent reference resource.
Read the Full Review Here
Informatively enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of a six page Bibliography, three pages of Notes, and a seven page Index, "Rorke's Drift By Those Who Were There" by co-authors Ian Knight, Lee Stevenson, and Gary Bayhnam-Jones is a seminal contribution to personal, professional, community, and academic library 19th Century British Military History collections in general, and the Southern African Anglo-Zulu War in particular.
Midwest Book Review
Read the full review here
As featured in
Wargames Illustrated – Issue 421, January 2023
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
NetGalley, S Ballinger
Rorke's Drift is one area of history I find fantastic and when I saw Ian Knights name on the book I knew I had to read it he is one greatest Anglo-Zulu history writers there is.
The book is a welcome addition to my collection on the subject, it's a fantastic collection of never before published first-hand accounts of one of the most infamous battles in British history.
Highly recommended.
First-hand accounts are the best way to get a sense of place. The farther you go back in history, the more important that becomes, and the harder it becomes for a historian to find those voices. This book pulls it off, presenting accounts with flaws and all. Voices of the past can be wrong or outdated, but they're still worth hearing.
NetGalley, Spencer Wright
About Alan Baynham-Jones
Alan Baynham-Jones was born in Plymouth, Devon in 1948. Whilst working for the Ministry of Defence, Alan found his lifetime interest in the Anglo-Zulu War, and in particular the defence of Rorke’s Drift, was shared by a work colleague, and they spent many long night-shifts discussing the subject. Alan also worked as a volunteer at the Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum for many years, and then later was asked to assist with the daunting task of cataloguing the vast archives at the Royal Welsh Regimental Museum in Brecon. He was instrumental in the discovery, restoration, and subsequent re-dedication of a number of graves of Rorke’s Drift defenders across the UK. Alan died in 2017 in Gloucester.
About Ian Knight
Ian Knight is internationally recognised as a leading authority on the Anglo-Zulu War. He has contributed to numerous TV documentaries on the subject, including the BBC’s Timewatch and Channel 4’s Secrets of the Dead. In 2000, he was the historian attached to the archaeological dig at the Isandlwana battlefield. He has written and co-written numerous books on the subject, including The Anatomy of the Zulu Army, Brave Men's Blood, The National Army Museum Book of the Zulu War, Zulu Rising and Who's Who in the Zulu War. He is a recipient of the Anglo-Zulu War Historical Society’s Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi Award for a lifetime’s achievement in the field.
About Lee Stevenson
Lee Stevenson has a long-standing fascination with the Defence of Rorke’s Drift thanks to his late father, Ray, who sparked his interest with a gift of a book about the Anglo-Zulu war when Lee was fourteen. Forty years later, he is still researching the lives of the men who fought there and has written numerous articles for magazines and regimental journals. In 2003, along with his friend and fellow Rorke’s Drift enthusiast Alan Baynham-Jones, he published a collection of first-hand accounts and stories written by the defenders, Rorke’s Drift: By Those Who Were There. This is an expanded and updated version of that book.