29 March 1879 On 29 March 1879, British cavalry and troops massacred hundreds of fleeing and wounded Zulu warriors after the Battle of Kambula, after an officer reminded his troops – ‘No Quarter Boys !’ A soldier from Devon confessed in a letter – ‘I can tell you some murdering went on,’ while a Liverpool…
23 JANUARY 1879 On 23 January 1879 hundreds of Zulu warriors, injured during the battle at Rorke’s Drift the previous day, were murdered by British troops. RORKE’S DRIFT – THE BATTLE Almost everyone has heard of the heroic defence of the missionary outpost the previous day, made famous by the 1964 film Zulu starring Michael Caine which…
[ 17 May 1900 ] On 17 May 1900, a British army relieved the besieged city of Mafeking during the Second Boer War. It led to street celebrations across Britain and the commander of the besieged garrison, Colonel Robert Baden-Powell, became a national hero. B-P had ruthlessly maintained food stocks for British troops and European…
4 July 1879 On 4 July 1879, British infantry used their overwhelming fire power to decisively defeat the Zulu nation at the battle of Ulundi. The battle itself, in which fifty Zulus were killed for every Redcoat, is occasionally recalled, but the even less glorious aftermath, in which the victorious troops immediately set about slaughtering…
26 January 1852 On 26 January 1852, seven columns of British colonial troops were advancing into the Amatola mountains on the eastern fringes of Cape Colony in what is today South Africa, systematically burning all the crops and settlements belonging to the Xhosa people, and seizing their goats, cattle and horses. Colonial newspapers covered the…
LORD MILNER ON HIGH DEATH RATE IN BRITISH CONCENTRATION CAMPS [ 4 December 1901 ] Lord Milner, Britain’s High Commissioner for Southern Africa, was charged with sorting out the concentration camps for civilian detainees during the Second South African Boer War, after the scandal of their inhumane conditions had been exposed in the press. In…
PREPARATIONS MADE TO BURN IRISH CONVICTS ALIVE [ 9 November 1804 ] On 9 November 1804, panic erupted among the British garrison of the remote penal colony of Norfolk Island in the South Pacific, when they sighted a flotilla of ships, including the 64 gun warship Athenienne, and assumed they were under attack from the…
MINISTERS UNABLE TO SAY IF BRITAIN IS AT WAR AS CAIRO AIRPORT IS BOMBED [ 1 November 1956 ] On 1 November 1956, an editorial in the Daily Mail was headlined ‘Britain at War’, however neither Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd nor Minister of Defence Antony Head were able to confirm whether or not Britain was actually at…
CROWDED TEA SHOP OBLITERATED AS RAF TARGET REBEL KURDISH CHIEF [ 16 August 1923 ] On 16 August 1923, the RAF conducted a surprise bombing attack on the home of the Sheikh Mahmud Barzanji in the Kurdish town of Sulaymaniyah. He was suspected of conspiring against British rule and of becoming too popular among a…
GENERAL’S REQUEST TO DEPORT BOER WOMEN TO REMOTE ISLAND IMPRACTICAL [ 20 July 1901 ] On 20 July 1901, the British Secretary of State for War, St. John Brodrick, wrote to General Horatio Kitchener, the Chief of Staff of British forces in South Africa, commenting on the general’s suggestion for the permanent banishment of the…
