Quick question on Rorkes Drift....

[tock24]

Would the defenders be sun tanned, or sun burnt? I believe the 2nd Battalion were recently arrived, and it was summer?

Painting a bust of a defender and need to know facial colours!!

Thanks in advance

Ian

 

[Helm]

Richie's your man for this, I would say they'd be a mixed bunch from pale to tanned with all variations in between including bright red
Steve

 

[valiant]

Ian, as Steve says, Richies the man - but I would say that getting sunburnt was (is?) a chargeable offence in the British Army.

Steve

 

[Richie]

Hi Ian,
The 1/24th had been in South Africa from about January 1875 and the 2/24th fought in the 9th Frontier wars 1877-1878 with the 1st and then the Zulu wars. These soldiers had marched over 1000 miles, rooinekers (red necks) they weren't not. I think a lot of them would have been bronzed in some way, but to what degree who can say.

The approx. number of medals issued to the 1st and 2nd battalions with the bars are as follows so you can see the number of combatants and the years in which they fought.

1st battalion "1877-8" (157), "1877-8-9" (526), 1878 (1), "1878-9" (24), "1879" (663)

2nd battalion "1877-8" (55), "1877-8-9" (823), "1879" (163)

Hope this helps some.
cheers
Richie

 

[tonydawe]

For what it's worth, I would argue that some amount of sun tan on the skin would be entirely appropriate for British soldiers working outdoors in the South African countryside. When you consider that the head gear they wore does not offer much protection from the sun on the face and sun screens were not available, I'd suggest you could have some very tanned fellows at Rorke's Drift.

 

[tock24]

Many thanks for all the replies. I think I will go for the slightly tanned look!

Ian

 

[Mat Lambert]

I heard somewhere that the reason for moustaches in the Victorian army (and the permission for beards on campaign) was to protect against the sun. Not sure if this is an urban myth. Hard to think the soldiers wouldn't have had some colour from the effects of the sun.

I also thought the 2nd Btn 24th had only been in South Africa a few weeks by the time of Rorkes Drift - maybe this was just Bromhead and Chard (with the engineers he was with) does anyone know?

Cheers
Mat

 

[Helm]

I would imagine it wouldn't take long to get a tan in any case in South Africa especially as a soldier in the field with no real shelter for most of the daylight hours
Steve

 

[Mat Lambert]

I also thought the 2nd Btn 24th had only been in South Africa a few weeks by the time of Rorkes Drift - maybe this was just Bromhead and Chard (with the engineers he was with) does anyone know?

Just read up on my own question tonight - to clarify - it was only Chard and his 5th Battalion Royal Engineers who had been in South Africa 3 weeks by the time of Rorkes Drift (although it took a month to get there from England by ship). Bit academic really unless your painting Chard as only he was at RD, his engineers all being at Isandlwana.

2/24th had all been in the Cape since Feb 1878 (like Richie had said earlier - sorry I missed that beforehand first post!). So guess they would be fairly sun weathered by then (eg not so redpink or sunburnt).

One thing I find curious is that a lot of the 2/24th men were apparently quite young (early to mid twenties) which seems to get overlooked in favour of gnarly old veterans with long whiskers in the commercial figures available.

Cheers
Mat

 

[Richie]

Hi Lads,
Here are two photo's of the Rorke's Drift survivors, it's actually one photograph, but these two have been blown up. You will get the idea of what they looked like.
cheers
Richie

 

[valiant]

Nice pic, Richie - interesting to see some wearing sweaters, presumably grey?

 

[Mat Lambert]

FYI - rorkesdriftvc.com is a useful forum with a lot of interesting threads.
Cheers
Mat