RORKE'S DRIFT: FAKE NEWS 1879

  RORKE'S DRIFT: FAKE NEWS 1879    Blog 3: Chard's Reports, Fake News 1879 and 1880      As I mentioned in my previous Blog, the two reports written by Lieutenant Chard – the first dated 25 th January, 1879, just two days after the Zulus attacked Rorke’s Drift, and the second submitted to Queen Victoria on the 21 st February 1880 ‒ are the primary sources of every account of the Battle of Rorke’s Drift.      As he is going to feature prominently in my analysis, it is perhaps appropriate I begin with a description of Lieutenant John Rouse Merriott Chard. In January 1879, Chard was 31 years of age, having been commissioned in the Royal Engineers in 1868 and subsequently posted to Bermuda and Malta to help build fortifications, both, I am assuming, pretty easy gigs. Prior to the battle at Rorke’s Drift, Chard had never seen active service and, hence, had never experienced the stress and confusion that invariably accompanies battle. ...

     RORKE'S DRIFT: FAKE NEWS 1879 Blog 2: The Accepted View of History      Before I begin my analysis, it’s probably best to summarise the generally accepted version of events that constitute ‘the Battle of Rorke’s Drift’, the most famous of all the engagements that took place during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879.      The man ultimately responsible for initiating the Anglo-Zulu War was H enry Howard Molyneux Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon, a Conservative politician whose one real triumph had been, when Secretary of State for the Colonies, to secure the confederation of all the disparate Canadian states into a single Dominion. This was accomplished in 1867 and when Carnarvon was once again appointed Colonial Secretary in 1874 he was determined to repeat this trick by melding the various colonies, protectorates and enclaves that made up southern Africa into one whole. This was part of the imperialistic ‘Cape to Cairo’ strategy many Victorian ...

  BLOG 1: INTRODUCTION Propaganda (noun): dissemination of information—facts, arguments, rumours, half-truths, or lies—to influence public opinion (Brittanica.com).   Let’s begin with an admission: I’m no historian. By profession I’m an accountant who has an inclination to be a writer. One of the books I’m currently working on has the working title ‘ The Feudalists ’, a fictionalised investigation of the plottings of devout confederationalists – those who wanted the British Empire amalgamated under a single Imperial Parliament ‒ in England of the 1880s. Part of the Feudalists’ machinations involved the promotion of their ‘Cape-to-Cairo’ strategy – arranging things so that the British Empire’s domains stretched the full length of Africa – this one of the reasons for the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, during which the fighting at Rorke’s Drift in January of that year played a crucial part (crucial not so much from a military point-of-view but certainly with regards to my story!)....