Souvenir Saturday: David Bell VC - saving men from surf and cannibals

David Bell VC (1845 – 7 March 1920) was born in County Down, Ireland. Bell was a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

He was about 22 years old, and a private in the 2nd Battalion, 24th Regiment of Foot (later The South Wales Borderers), British Army.

He was awarded the VC not for bravery in action against the enemy but for bravery at sea in saving life in a storm off the Andaman Islands.

 On 7 May 1867 at the island of Little Andaman in the Bay of Bengal, Private Bell was one of a party of five who risked their lives in manning a boat and proceeding through dangerous surf to rescue some of their comrades who had been sent to the island to find out the fate of the commander and seven of the crew, who had landed from the ship Assam Valley and were feared murdered by the cannibalistic islanders.

David Bell wearing his VC

He later achieved the rank of sergeant and died Gillingham, Kent, 7 March 1920. His Victoria Cross is displayed at the South Wales Borderers Museum in Brecon, Powys, Wales.

From the citation, gazetted on 17 December 1867::

'The four Privates behaved in ... a cool and collected manner, rowing through the roughest surf when the slightest hesitation or want of pluck on the part of any one of them would have been attended by the gravest results. It is reported that seventeen officers and men were thus saved from what must otherwise have been a fearful risk, if not certainty of death.'

One of the party, Private William Griffiths, awarded a VC for gallantry in the same incident, later died at Isandlwana 22 January 1879.

Was your ancestor in the Zulu War, 1879?

Unidentified Private, Zulu War

My interest in all things ZULU was not actually down to the film of that name but as a result of a visit to my old cub-master in Streatham London.  I visit London as often as I can. On one of these visits I went to see Colin, an expert on Red Indian lore and all matters World War One and the Home Guard. As he went into the kitchen to make tea I noticed a book, he has hundreds!, called the 'SILVER WREATH', I flicked through the pages and realised its topic was the garrison at Rorke's Drift which of course the film, ZULU is all about. I had a year or two earlier chanced upon the Donald Morris book, 'Washing Of The Spears' and being the nit-picker I am I felt, although a good read, perhaps it was TOO precise in it's colourful narrative. I felt as though he had to have been there to describe such finite detail of the battles etc. Nonetheless a good book to have in one's library.

I noticed in the SILVER WREATH a man called Pte 1284 Charles Mason of the 24th. Up until then I don't think there had been much, if any literature, on the men of Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift, and anyway, I was not then interested enough to go beyond enjoying the film. I began the many trips to the Family History Centre at Islington, now transferred to Kew. Ironically just a hundred yards or so from this is the London Metropolitan Archives, a place I soon visited many times for records and data. Even more scary was the fact that in this very tight area (now a play park) was a house which Pte Charles MASON knew very well: Skinner St. Mr Hitler and the Lufewaffe took a dislike to this house in the Second World war and sent one of his flying bombs which razed it to the ground. 

The SILVER WREATH was the book of its day but I quickly learnt, as in every publication, mistakes abound. This was certainly true of the SILVER WREATH. In the case of Pte MASON, for instance, it describes his place of birth as ALDGATE. This is not correct. In fact he was born in ALDERSGATE, a different area entirely as those who know London can verify. I wrote letters, phoned people (did not have computers in those days). By 1998 I had contact with a man whose influence got me well and truly 'hooked' on all things ZULU. Mr Maurice Jones was as keen as mustard on the Zulu campaign and when I met him I decided that this was the

hobby/interest for me.

I joined the group he formed and one day I entered into the realms of a re-enactor as a Sapper of c1879 and so began many years of camps and re-enactments. Meanwhile my interest in finding out things increased. One day I was most fortunate to meet Mr Douglas Bourne who is the Grandson of C/Sgt Frank Bourne DCM of Rorke's Drift fame. My skills at research were rudimentary to say the least in those days but I was learning all the time. Eventually I became the Archivist and Record Keeper of the Group founded by Mo Jones (as we know him). Along the way I met descendants of the men who were at Rorke's Drift. One defender had, and still, has a huge influence in my life. The man in question is Fred HITCH VC. More about Fred later.

 I often wondered what the life of the ordinary man was like both before and after the events of 1879. London was not the best place to live if you came from such an area as Whitechapel for instance. The grinding poverty and social deprivations can only be wondered at today.

For some, the only escape route was to join the army, often this meant leaving family behind, sometimes forever. Consumption of beer and drink was often the only release both civilian and soldier had. The records are littered with punishments for being drunk and many a soldier was reduced for the over indulgence of the black bottle. One exception to the rule was Pte Alfred Henry Hook, a former woodsman from Gloucestershire. Many have asked why a man from Southgate in London served with a man from Gloucestershire in a Welsh (24th) Regiment. Well first of all the 24th origins are set in Warwickshire and they were an English regiment in the beginning. The policy in Victorian days was for a man to join the army and then depending on which holding brigade he was in (25B in the case of the 24th), the regiment in which he was to serve was determined. This is why Fred HITCH from Southgate served with Alfred Henry HOOK who worked in the Forest of Dean. Fate threw these two together and they became arguably (still to this day) the best researched and well loved Private soldiers bar none. All this I came to learn since I decided to look into the lives and back ground of the Zulu campaign. 

Now I am not a Historian such as the author, Ian Knight, but an amateur genealogist with aspirations of better things. I learnt very quickly that mistakes in a man's life circumstances are often repeated when another author picks up the cudgel and prints another book on the Zulu war.

One example I can quote with certainty is the life of Fred HITCH. So often I have read that he had SIX children and was married in 1880. Both erroneous statements. Fred got married in 1881 and had 11 children, not 6, as has so often been printed in many publications. Three sadly died when quite young. Even the name of Fred's wife has been reported incorrectly so many times. The correct name is EMILY MATILDA MEURISSE. I have been fortunate to stand in the very church in Bayswater, London, where Fred was married and with me, at that time, was his Great Granddaughter, Sandra Barker. I was fortunate to be part of a Blue Plaque ceremony in January 2004 to commemorate the last and arguably most famous address for a Rorke's Drift man: 62 Cranbrook Road Chiswick. Next time you are in Chiswick High St, look for CRANBROOK Road. It has a dog leg at each end and a long stretch. Don't look for the number, just look for the Blue Plaque, now firmly fixed on the wall of his last residence. At the top of SOUTHGATE, near the Underground station is CHELMSFORD Road and just as you start down this road, look up, you will see on a little white marker the name, 'Zulu Cottages 1879' on this tablet. 

Some men are quite easy to research while others have scant or no records to look into. I discovered that Sgt Windridge, the Senior Sgt at Rorkes Drift, had been married no less than THREE times, he eventually died at the home of his Sister in 1902. I was taken to see a now disused cemetery in which a headstone showed the two persons buried in that spot to be the wife and daughter of one QM Bloomfield who was killed at Isandlwana. Something on the headstone made me realise that QM Bloomfield had been married TWICE and it turned out to be correct and that he had THREE daughters, the eldest being born in 1862 in Mauritius while the other two were born as a result of his second marriage.

 I am still trying to determine if I could be related to Pte Charles MASON of Aldersgate, I have no concrete proof one way or the other on this at this time. Ironically we share the same birthday (13th August). He was born in 1855 whilst I was born  in 1950. A distant relative of Pte 1181 William Henry Camp became known to me and at the time one source indicated 'no known relatives', well with research and pig-headedness, well over 100 relatives of WH Camp have come to light. William Henry CAMP died aged 46 in 1900, the same age as his father who died a number of years earlier. The final resting place of WH Camp still has to be located but the burial site of his father has been found. It was often thought that the birthplace of William Jones who won a VC at Rorke's drift, alongside 10 others, was EVESHAM when, in fact, it turns out to be BRISTOL. Again diligent research has shown this to be so.

Men like Pte Gee and Pte Chick still hold great fascination because so little is known about them. Did you know there was a soldier in the 24th who was called Michael Caine (not a lot of people know that)?  Going off on a tangent slightly there was a man called Henry COOPER who has won a VC! No not our 'ENERY, but if you doubt me, look in 'MONUMENTS TO COURAGE' by David Harvey and you will find him. Try as I may, I have yet to find the woman that later QM Bloomfield first married, and the mother of ELLEN BLOOMFIELD the eldest daughter of three, (two by his second marriage). Such is the nature of research . 

Research has shown that William JONES did not send his baby son back from South Africa when his wife died but that the child born in 1877 was with his grandparents at the time of the 1881 Census. Sadly the wife of William Jones died in Durban and the exact location of her grave is still unknown. The actions of January 22nd 1879 were but one day and what happened to those men after that day? I can't claim I found all by myself, as many others have told me, or have worked alongside me, on this journey of discovery. My thanks to those and to those with far greater knowledge than I in these matters. When the 'SILVER WREATH' was first published there was no other bench mark for accuracy and Norman Holmes, were he alive today, would no doubt be amazed at how his original work has been adjusted in so many ways. The 'NOBLE 24th' is the follow up to the 'SILVER WREATH' and I hope in my lifetime not only to go to South Africa but to be part of the NEXT reprint of Norman Holmes's original work.

Say to yourself, "Am I related to a man who fought in the Zulu war of 1879?". You may know that answer, you may not. There are a lot of people out there who can help if needed, I hope I can help if asked.


Graham Mason
Anglo-Zulu War Researcher
graham.mason2@homecall.co.uk

Zulu Royal Kraal

Joseph Lumley, Natal Carbineer, d Isandlwana 1879 Zulu War

Joseph LUMLEY was born in Yorkshire at Normanby on the 8th December 1857 and arrived in South Africa in September 1862. He died on the battlefield of Isandlwana on the 22.01.1879. His is one of the few names to be recorded on the site where his body was found together with fellow Carbineers who fought their last stand supporting Colonel Durnford, who was also killed. The first picture shows a close-up of Joseph Lumley's name and some others splattered with whitewash, the second picture shows the memorial in relation to the Isandlwana mountain. It is on the side of a stony ridge that overlooks the battlefield and across the ridge is the route to Fugitives Drift.

Durnford his men and a small number of the Carbineers had engaged and held the left horn in a Donga (known as Durnford's Donga) in the middle of the depression in front (SW) of Isandlwana Mountain The foot soldiers who were deployed to back them up got caught in hollow ground approaching the Donga where they were overwhelmed and all killed. Durnford and his mounted men had by this time started a retreat up the slope towards the saddle ridge below Isandlwana Mountain. This saddle contained the road back to Rorke's Drift, they did not know that the right horn of the attacking Zulu Impi had travelled behind the mountain and blocked the retreat and anyway they never quite got to the saddle before they were finally surrounded on the rocky knoll next to the saddle, there they were killed and disembowelled. Their monument stands on this spot today.*

*This monument bears the name of J Lumley (Joseph Peter Lumley), the eldest son of the Great Grandparents of Trevor Lumley and Gillian Richmond and for the rest of us our Great Great Grandparents John and Margaret Lumley.

David Moon

Lumley descendant

NATAL CARBINEERS The History Of The Regiment From Its Foundation, 15th January 1855, to 30th June, 1911

Author:	Rev. John Stalker
ISBN:	9781781519615

Anglo-Zulu War: Pitfalls in Researching an Ancestor

Even after all the passage of time from that fateful day of 22 January 1879 till the present there are many issues cloaked in mystery and ignorance. 

Life in 'civvy street' in Victorian London or any other major city of the time was grim to say the least; infant mortality was extremely high, mothers had, in many cases, ten or more children, and if four or five survived beyond 12 years of age they were doing pretty well in some of the really slum areas, especially in London.

To escape the grinding poverty and rampant illiteracy many a young man turned to the forces to escape this thankless life. Once again to quote my favourite example, Fred Hitch later to win a VC at Rorke's Drift was at the time of his enlistment a farm labourer and illiterate. I often wonder which was worse: to be the wife of a private soldier or suffer the harsh regime of a private soldier in a foot regiment (Infantry). There were no allowances made to wives and children of private soldiers, unlike today, and married quarters were still to come. A man could be sent to India and not see England for 18 years or more. Quite often the only concession to a married man was a blanket drawn across a bed-space at the end of a barrack room. No time for niceties in those days!

In 1879 a man had the choice of enlisting into one of the following: Infantry, General Service, Artillery or finally the Cavalry. Unlike today a man was usually accepted with little or no vetting into the Infantry: life was cheap and no questions asked. You could in certain regiments enlist as a boy and gradually work your way until you reached the age of 18 when you were considered a man - odd when you think that you were considered a youth till the age of 21 and could not get married below this age without consent of pare

nts, a soldier had to ask permission from his commanding officer to get married back in Victorian times.

In one famous case, a certain man got married without his commanding officer's permission but escaped punishment: this was Driver (Royal Engineers) Charles Robson, batman to a certain Lt Chard RE. A driver RE received a little extra pay as opposed to a Sapper. After much research I realised that the crafty recruiting Sgts played a 'fast one'. The optimum age to enlist was, as stated, 18, and this was true for all four elements at the time. However, to enlist in either the Artillery or Cavalry you had to serve a minimum of 12 years. In the Infantry or in the General Service it was 10 years if aged 18 or over at the time. If you were 17, you had to serve the extra year plus the minimum requirement of 10 years if joining the infantry.

Very soon it was realised that if details on the enlistment sheet were 'lost' there was no way of checking if a man was signing up for 10 or 12 years. In many cases an alias was used and a wrong age indicated. In some cases the enlistment sheet survived and this is when this anomaly presented itself to me. As there were different enlisting forms a person could sign up on a Cavalry form for 12 years when in fact it should have been 10 (Infantry). This meant in many cases a man serving 2 extra years plus any shortfall years below the age of 18.

A lot of enlistment sheets are missing but by the same token a lot survived. I even have papers where you can see the 10 years crossed out and 12 inserted and also the reverse! Where papers do survive it is the attestation sheet that survives. You had to enlist first, then usually within 3 days attest (make a definite commitment to service). Men signed for 6 years in the regulars and 6 years in the Reserves in which time, if not already dead in battle or of fever, were liable to be recalled to do further service both in the UK and abroad.

There was no choice at first as to what regiment you served in, which is why men from Eire, London and Bristol served together. If a regiment was under strength the next batch of 40 to 60 men were sent to a particular 'holding brigade' before being allocated to a particular regiment. In the case of the 24th Regt of Foot it was 25 Brigade. Look at the casualty lists for Isandlwana with regard to the 1/24th. Many men have, as an example, 25 B/1234 Pte John Anybody. This meant that an individual was still held in a holding unit but served with the 24th, attached but not actually part of the regiment as yet. So we have the situation where Pte J Anybody enlisted under a false name, lied about his age, was recruited falsely, and it was often found that he changed units. When a man was granted a change of regiment he was given another number, his old number being allocated to another man. We find Pte Anybody wants to return to his old unit, does so and gets yet another different number! Very confusing when it comes to obtaining service records or pension details.

At the termination of this article there will be a list of books to refer to with regard to the casualty lists of the battle at Isandlwana (in the main). It was not until the Cardwell reforms of 1881 that the rules were changed and a man kept his number from enlistment till discharge, and regiments of Foot were given titles, such as the Essex regiment, Lancashire regiment etc. The 24th became, of course, the South Welsh Borderers. Many an author still refers to these men at Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift as being in the South Welsh Borderers but this change of title only occurred after the reforms. A man often took to the army life and re-enlisted after 12 years or even beyond 21 years in many cases.

Frank Bourne of Rorke's Drift found himself a Colour Sgt in the 24th at the tender age of 23. For every two years good conduct a man got an extra one penny a day pay and a good conduct stripe to indicate this. A maximum of six could have been awarded during a man's service. These could be traded in for rank so a Cpl with three Good Conduct stripes could 'cash in' two and go to C/Sgt (Colour Sergeant). In the case of Sgt Windridge of Rorke's Drift he went from Private to Quarter Master, back to Private and finally to Sgt. A fondness for the black bottle was his undoing.

To make my life as a researcher more difficult the service papers of a man killed in action were destroyed: the 1/24th took their service papers into battle and these were all lost after the action was finally over that January day. 

To make matters worse a large number of service papers were destroyed in the Second World War due to the action of the Luftwaffe. Despite all these obstacles we have barely touched the surface on research matters and I hope new facts will still emerge.

For the casualty returns mentioned, I advise you to look in the following books in particular.

1. Casualty Roll for the Zulu and Basuto wars, South Africa 1877-79 IT Tavender (JB Hayward & Son ISBN 0-903754 24X)

2. They Fell Like Stones: John Young (Greenhill Books ISBN 1- 85367-096-0)3. The Roll Call for Isandhlwana and Rorke's Drift, 1879: Julian Whybra (Roberts Medals Publications ISBN 1-873058-0-1)4. The Silver Wreath, 24th Regt at Isandhlwana and Rorke's Drift, 1879: Norman Holme (ISBN 0-906304-02-4)

Graham Mason, AZW Researcher

Tracing a Military Man 4

The 1881 Census for  Stevenston reveals that Finley Gibson’s brother, William, also took up residence in their widowed sister’s household in Schoolwell Street. Both men are listed as army pensioners. According to William’s service pension documents, he had taken his discharge from the army on 7 September 1880 at which date he was aged 38.

Though these pension papers give his number as 1245, this is an error: William was, in fact, Pte 1265 of the 2/4^th, the King’s Own Royal Regiment of Foot. Like Finley, his birthplace was St George’s District, East London, and his civilian occupation was labourer. His intended place of residence after discharge is given as 57 Newcommon (Newcomen) Street, Borough, London. Whether this address had been that of the Gibson family home is uncertain, but William apparently chose to go to Ayrshire instead, perhaps having heard that Finley was living there.

William was in the 2^nd Battalion of the 4^th Foot (King’s Own Royal Regiment)  [WO12/2271]. He had enlisted on 21 June 1859 at Newington. His description: height 5’4 and a half, chest 30”, hair dark, build slender.

The first thing William did on enlistment was go AWOL until 17 July 1859. He rejoined his Regiment on 18 July 1859 and was ordered to be inducted into his Corps as a pardoned deserter. Not a good beginning to William’s military career and giving a fair indication of both his attitude and of what was to come.

The Defaulters Book entries for William show his conduct to have been ‘Fair’ and that he acquired only one Good Conduct badge during the entire course of his service. He appeared on Regimental defaulters a total of 35 times including 4 Courts Martial. This must constitute another sort of record.

Nevertheless, he was locked into the army for a considerable time. At date of discharge he had completed 19 years, 251 days’ service – eight and a half years of which were served abroad. Stations included Corfu, Malta, Halifax Nova Scotia and, unexpectedly for me, Natal - for a year and five months. This must have been around the time of the Anglo-Zulu War, I thought, and so it proved: William Gibson had actually visited South Africa with his regiment. Could he have been at Isandlwana? Or at Rorke’s Drift?

To be continued

Anglo-Zulu War: Bloomfield, Quarter Master of the 2/24th

QM Edward Bloomfield

In the film Zulu Dawn we see the actor Peter Vaughan being 'dispatched' as he was dishing out ammunition to the troops at Isandlwana in the guise of QM Edward Bloomfield of the 2/24th. A couple of years ago I was at a disused cemetery in Essex where the wife of Edward BLOOMFIELD and his daughter are buried: the cemetery in question is Lorne Road Cemetery, Brentford, in Essex. I was shown this grave by a descendant of a Rorke's Drift defender whose ancestor was Pte William Henry CAMP of 'B' Coy 2/24th. Upon looking at the headstone I saw that it indicated it was Louisa Maud Bloomfield, Edward's youngest daughter, which by that very definition hinted at other children; I decided to investigate.

A search of the census returns showed me that Edward had married twice and had one daughter with his first wife and two with his second. But I am a little ahead of myself at this point. Edward Bloomfield was born on 7 November 1835 in London. Records show that as a youngster before he was even a teenager he joined the then Scots Fusilier Guards, now known as the Scots Guards. He joined this regiment on 1 Feb 1847 aged 12 years and 3 months. Edward's parents did not get married until 1838 and Edward's father, also called Edward, was a Drum Major in the same regiment. It has been thought that QM Bloomfield, as he became, was of Scottish origin due to the fact he joined a Scottish regiment and had a brother called Alexander Kerr Bloomfield who later became a policeman - more about him later. Both Edward and his father were in fact Londoners, as was Edward's grandfather.

Edward served with the Scots Fusilier Guards until 31 March 1859 when he transferred to the 2/24th regiment of Foot. Was it because his father was a Drum Major he decided to change regiments? We will never know. Edward stayed with the 24th until his death. of course, on 22 January 1879. In 1860 the 24th were posted to Mauritius, in 1862 a daughter was born called Ellen and it's my belief that Edward married in Chatham prior to being sent out overseas.

By 1873, however, Edward was married a second time to a Matilda Relf and had two daughters by her. I have yet to ascertain the name of this first wife and if Edward was a divorcee or a widower. Census returns and other research have cemented these facts. Ellen Bloomfield is shown as living with her Uncle and Aunt in Essex; by this time she had two half-sisters but it appears she either did not get on with them or possibly there was no room for her with her step mother and half-sisters.

Ellen as stated was living with her Uncle who was a Sgt in the police at this time; he rose to the rank of Inspector and eventually died in 1902. Edward Bloomfield senior died in 1878; as he was born in the Windsor area this leads me to believe he decided a life in the army was better than that of a labourer, as was his father before him. Army life suited both Edward Bloomfield and his father: the elder rose to the rank of Drum Major while his son to the rank of Quarter Master in the 24th.

By all accounts Edward Bloomfield was a popular man with both officers and rankers within the 24th. Regular promotions followed from 1859 till Jan 1879 when he reached the rank of QM in 1873, the same year as his second marriage took place. Ellen, his first daughter from his earlier marriage, stayed with her Uncle till she eventually married in 1894. Tragedy had stalked the Bloomfield family, however. Back in 1878 Edward had lost his father; in 1879 QM Bloomfield met his end at faraway Isandlwana. In 1892 the now widow Matilda had died along with her youngest daughter aged 15.

Further research will be needed to locate the offspring of Ellen Bloomfield but the line of Adaline Bloomfield his second daughter has been taken as far as QM Bloomfield's great great grandchildren. This only goes to show that you can never close the book on any person and I'm glad to be able to put the record straight on a man not often written about.

by Graham Mason, AZW Researcher

Caithness in the Zulu Country 1879

The Hampshire Advertiser of 5 March 1879 reported thus on the preparations being made in Pietermaritzburg, Natal, should the inhabitants of that city be ‘required to go into Laager’ i.e. for their defence against a possible attack by the Zulu army.

Details are given about the various buildings selected to house people and stores, and mention of the signal to be given for people to assemble at these designated places bringing with them sufficient food supplies to last a week. This doom and gloom was hardly reassuring for ‘Southamptonians who have relatives and friends at Pietermaritzburg’ but remember that the disastrous battle of Isandlwana on 22 January 1879 was still fresh in everyone’s mind.

Isandlwana: The Aftermath

A 20 000-strong Zulu force had swooped down on and decimated part of Lord Chelmsford’s main British column encamped under the lee of a strangely-shaped mountain in the heart of Zulu territory. 

Court House, Durban ca 1870

Natal’s population had been on tenterhooks since then. Buildings such as the Court House in Durban had been loopholed (gaps made in the exterior walls for the firing of guns) in case of attack.

From a family historian’s point of view, by far the most intriguing portion of the report is the final sentence:

We understand that there is a person named Caithness, a native of Totton, who, together with his family, has been located right in the centre of the Zulu country for some years, and has lived happily among them hitherto, but how they will fare now there is ‘war to the knife’ remains to be seen.

Who could this person be? 

Mary Ann Bell nee Caithness was still living in Durban, Natal, at this date, though her husband Captain William Bell had been dead for a decade. However, the report suggests that the individual is male, and Mary Ann’s progeny were, of course, Bells not Caithnesses.

James Ramsay Caithness the mariner brother of Mary Ann had died in 1860, and he had been Cape-based. What of his children? Could any of them be the Caithness who had been living ‘in the Zulu Country’?

James Ernest Caithness

James Edward Caithness (who later preferred to call himself James Ernest) had left home at some juncture during the years following his father’s death. It’s rumoured that he tried sheep farming, perhaps in South Africa, but it is known for certain that in December 1877 James was in London for a key event – his marriage to Eugenie Sarah Henrietta Westmacott. 

Their eldest child was born in 1878 in Calcutta and it seems that James’s career took off in India. By 1895 he was a senior partner in the Calcutta offices of Cooke and Kelvey, pearl and diamond merchants, watch and clock makers etc. There’s no evidence among these facts to support the idea that he might have been in South Africa in 1879.

Muddying the water is the terminology used in the report. What did ‘right in the centre of the Zulu country’ mean precisely? In Zululand, i.e. to the north of the Tugela River, or in the separate region then known as the Colony of Natal? It’s possible that to someone writing for a Hampshire newspaper in 1879 the distinction wasn’t clear. Had the person really been ‘living among the Zulus’ – which conveys an impression of residence in a rural area such as a missionary or trader might have experienced – or had he been part of a community in or nearby one of the main Natal towns such as Pietermaritzburg or Durban?

The emergence of an unexpected Caithness marriage record gives further pause for thought. 

Marriage entry: Emily Mary Ann Caithness and Herbert Lee Carige
 Durban 12 December 1865

On 12 December 1865, Emily Mary Ann Caithness, daughter of James Ramsey Caithness, and Herbert Lee Carige were married at Christ Church in the parish of Addington, Durban, Natal. The original entry shows the first witness’s signature to be James Caithness. If the illegible middle initial is an ‘E’ (and any handwriting experts reading this are invited to give their opinion) this could be James Ernest/Edward, brother of the bride, presumably giving her away in the absence of their deceased father:

                   
                                                                       

James E might have simply made the trip up from the Cape for the occasion and at that stage, as yet unmarried, he doesn’t fit the newspaper description of a man who was living in the Zulu Country ‘together with his family’. Moreover, James could hardly be called ‘a native of Totton’: he had been born in London prior to his father leaving for South Africa and subsequently their home had been in the Cape. 

More digging is required to establish beyond doubt the identity of the Caithness in the Zulu Country.

Acknowledgement

Tom Sheldon