The Defence of Rorke's Drift - Corporal William Wilson Allen

Corporal William Wilson Allen

2nd Battalion 24th Regiment of Foot

"It was chiefly due to the courageous conduct of these [Allen and Hitch] men that communication with the hospital was kept up at all. Holding together at all costs a most dangerous post, raked in reverse by the enemy's fire from the hill, they were both severely wounded, but their determined conduct enabled the patients to be withdrawn from the hospital, and when incapacitated by their wounds from fighting, they continued as soon as their wounds had been dressed, to serve out ammunition to their comrades during the night."

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The Victoria Cross - Its Origins

The Victoria Cross Medal made by Hancocks of London Queen Victoria, during her reign, had instructed the War Office to strike a new medal that would not recognise birth or class. The medal was meant to be a simple decoration that would be highly prized and eagerly sought after by those in the military services. The original warrant stated that the Victoria Cross would only be awarded to soldiers who have served in the presence of the enemy and had performed some single act of valour or devotion. It was originally intended that the VCs would be cast from the cascabels of two cannon that were captured from the Russians at the siege of Sevastopol . In 1990 Creagh and Ashton conducted a metallurgical examination of the VCs in the custody of the Australian War Memorial. Later, the historian John Glanfield, wrote that, through the use of x-ray studies of older Victoria Crosses, it was determined that the metal used for VCs is from antique Chinese guns and not of Russian origin....

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After 12 years of navigating the battlefields of Rorke's Drift and Isandlwana it was time to start updating and revamping our information. First in line has been our List of books on the Battles and we were amazed how that list has grown over the years. We are also sure that our guests, past and present would benefit from this update and what better way to do this than through our blog. Over the next few weeks I will give you lists of the books, a few at a time with a little bit of background of each one. This is of course so that you can start your own collection of books, or start a reading marathon or even use the subject for a book club. For your convenience I am linking each one of the books to the place that you can buy it online, most of which will be Amazon and if its not available on Amazon I will try to track down where it's at. First on our list is The Horns of the Buffalo by John Wilcox a fiction novel and the write up on Amazon describes the book...

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