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DateOriginal Topic
25th February 2004colour sergeant Bourne
By John Follon
Can anyone explain why C/Sgt. Bourne is depicted as a plain sergeant in the film Zulu.
Not wearing a crown above his insignia.
DateReplies
25th February 2004John Young
John,

To be accurate he is actually depicted as a Lance-Sergeant, and then with his chevrons on the wrong sleeve.

Why? I would suggest a lack of research on behalf of the film's makers. It is like saying why is Chard wearing a Volunteers helmet plate, rather than a Regular Army one?

Poor research.

John Y.

25th February 2004john follon
Thank you John Young, I thought that may have been the case. Pity about that.
I was a colour sergeant in the Somerset Light Infantry and I was therefore interested.
26th February 2004Martin Heyes
I think the point which comes out here is that so much of what happens in the film is inaccurate. It really does become all rather pointless after a while - i.e. spotting the inaccuracies - from the opening scene, where a victorious Zulu picks up a dead redcoat's rifle at Isandhlana, to the very end - the film is a complete mass of inaccuracies.

On the subject of inaccuracies in the uniforms displayed in the film; neither Chard nor Bromhead wore red tunics at the Battle. And certainly Bourne did not wear the medals displayed in the film. The directors have a great deal to answer for - although as has been said many times on this forum the film did introduce the whole campaign to a great many people, myself included, and for that we should be grateful.
26th February 2004Mike McCabe
Very interested to know why you think that neither Chard not Bromhead wore red tunics at Rorke's Drift, except if you mean that they both wore the 'red serge frock' instead.
26th February 2004John Young
Martin,

I am equally as interested as Mike regarding your comment about what Chard & Bromhead wore during the action. Because if you actually know what they wore it would be something of a landmark discovery, rather than the pure conjecture of others, including myself.

John Y.