JONES' at Rorke's Drift, Zulu War, V.C. recipients. (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Saturday, December 27, 2014, 23:48 (3628 days ago) @ slowhands

For the umpteenth time I've just watched the "Zulu" feature film about the defence of Rorke's Drift. I just wish I'd seen this thread before watching it, I had no idea one of those awarded the Victoria Cross was a local man from Churcham.

I also wish I'd taken more notice of the film's closing credits, which lists the eleven V.C.s awarded after this battle. My reason for posting is not to discuss "proper" FoD family history at all !, but to record my pleasure that the ONLY JONES V.C. recipients were two brave men whose names combine to bear my son's name !
Not a great claim to fame I agree, but I like it :-)

My son was named William Robert JONES, William after his grand and g-great grandfathers, and then Robert after my middle name (which was a random choice). Not a surprising coincidence of course, as hardly unusual names, but I still think a rather good one.

The film has us believe it was largely fought by Welsh soldiers singing "men of Harlech", so I initially thought there may have been a higher percentage of Jones' present. I do know the action is justly commemorated at the Brecon Barracks of the (now)Royal Regiment of Wales, their Regimental March is indeed "Men of Harlech", and the film is watched by every new recruit. However, as has been already mentioned on this forum, the soldiers involved at this battle were drawn from right across our area from Monmouthshire to Birmingham;

"The 1964 film Zulu is a depiction of the Battle of Rorke's Drift. The film received generally positive reviews from the critics. Some details of the film's account have, however, been criticised as historically inaccurate (for example, in the movie the regiment is called the South Wales Borderers but the unit was not in fact called that until two years after the battle, although the regiment had been based at Brecon in South Wales since 1873). While most of the men of the 1st Battalion, 24th Regiment of Foot (1/24) were recruited from the industrial towns and agricultural classes of England, principally from Birmingham and adjacent southwest counties, only 10 soldiers of the 1/24 that fought in the battle were Welsh. Many of the soldiers of the junior battalion, the 2/24, were Welshmen. Of the 122 soldiers of the 24th Regiment present at the Battle of Rorke's Drift, 49 are known to have been of English nationality, 32 were Welsh, 16 were Irish, 1 was a Scot, and 3 were born overseas. The nationalities of the remaining 21 are unknown."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Rorke%27s_Drift#Defensive_preparations

The V.C.s awarded during the Zulu War are listed here,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Zulu_War_Victoria_Cross_recipients

One of the two JONES V.C.s, Robert, was actually from the Welsh Borders, Raglan area. After the battle he settled in Peterchurch, Herefordshire, only to later commit suicide as a direct result of his awful experiences and wounds at Rorke's Drift.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Jones_(VC)

His fellow JONES namesake William was from Evesham, Worcestershire. Sadly he had to pawn his V.C. before dying a pauper in a Manchester workhouse.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jones_(VC)