A NEW book has uncovered previously unknown Denbighshire connections with a soldier who took part in the defence of Rorke’s Drift... one of the most famous battles in British military history, depicted in the epic movie Zulu!
On January 22, 1879, a small garrison of British soldiers had to stand and fight behind a makeshift barricade of bags and boxes to defend the stores and field hospital which had been established at Rorke’s Drift, against the native Zulu army, which outnumbered them by about 20 to one.
The Brits fought for their lives and held the Zulu assaults back so stubbornly that the warriors lost heart and gave up.
Among these men was James Taylor, who chose Denbighshire as his place of retirement and he lies buried in a local churchyard.
A Yorkshireman by birth, James had worked as a clerk before he joined the army, and he seems to have found it difficult to adjust to military life at first, as he was promoted and demoted several times in his early career.
However, he eventually settled down and had achieved the rank of lance-sergeant when he fought at Rorke’s Drift.
He was promoted sergeant on the day after the defence in response to the losses the regiment had suffered during the disastrous engagement at Isandlwana.
On leaving the army he originally went to live in Manchester, but when his daughter came to live at St Asaph James brought his family to live in the village of Trefnant, making their home at a house they called Siop Bach and James returned to his previous occupation as a clerk, with the firm of Richard Evans.
He died on November 15, 1915 from a malignant disease of the throat, aged 64, and was buried with military honours in Trefnant churchyard.
His South Africa campaign medal is with the regimental museum in Brecon.
The Rorke’s Drift Men took 35 years to research, and brings all the defenders together in one publication for the first time in the form of biographical tributes.
Available in all good bookshops (ISBN: 978-0-7524-5692-8), or you can obtain signed copies from the author James Bancroft at 280 Liverpool Road, Eccles, Manchester M30 0RZ. Price £20 plus £5 carriage costs.