Was he spinning a yarn? |
Martin Everett
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1028 Driver J Theobald was according to the medal roll in O Battery 6th Brigade Royal Artillery - this unit arrived in Durban in April 1879 - nearly 3 months after the defence of Rorke's Drift.
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_________________ Martin Everett Brecon, Powys |
RobB
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Martin, thanks for the info. I think this is probably another J.Theobald but I've noted your info.Thanks for replying.
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Martin Everett
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Please remember we are answering this type of question every day. No Theobald at RD.
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_________________ Martin Everett Brecon, Powys |
Johnny_H
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Yeah Rob I am inclined to believe that if they say this man wasn't at Rorke's Drift then .. he was not there.
Martin Everett was able to tell me this in my question thread
For something that minor, and to know it ? I am going to bet on the fact he answered your question quite correctly. |
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_________________ "It looks, er, jolly simple doesn't it? (Bromhead to Adendorff) Jolly deadly old boy! (Adendorff) " |
peterw
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Agreed. Not there according to any of the rolls or published sources. Sorry to disappoint you.
See "England's Sons" (available from RRW Museum) if further proof required. Peter |
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RobB
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Thanks for all your replies.
I didn't believe that John Theobald was at RD, given that in the same interview he admitted to not sailing to SA until 1879 so time would have been tight for John to have been involved. Still, I'm glad to be able to dismiss his story rather than always wonder if he did have any involvement. |
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Garen
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News articles are a great source of info and contemporary opinion, but also a real web of jumbled facts (as you obviously know). Although that article may be relating your g-g-grandfather's story, it may also be a young journalist inserting the RD story to either spice it up a bit, or because he assumed he would have been there. It is written third person, so who knows?
My area is the Afghan War, and almost every obituary going claims the late subject in question was on the 'famous march to Kandahar', whether they were a General or a Private. It sometimes seems to be the newspaper assuming if they were in the Afghan War, they were on the march (though, having said that, there were a huge number on the march compared to RD). But I have also grown accustomed to soldiers themselves (or families) making such claims, when medal rolls and regimantal placement tell a different story. You seem to have a healthy view of the article, RobB. Some family historians I help out refuse to believe their ancestors could have embellished a few facts - or even pinned on an extra medal or two when they got back to Blighty! |
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_________________ http://www.angloafghanwar.info |
family yarns |
Tom516
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I can empathize to a certain degree... my late grandfather was a WW2 veteran and I always assumed he was a great hero who fought in epic defensive battles against the Japanese. I was researching his life for a possible film thesis topic for graduation but I discovered that his unit was most likely not involved in combat but was ordered to surrender and he went into the PoW camp pretty much without a fight. His time of heroism was in this later period as he was an officer and conducted himself well and with dignity during that time. However for the longest time the 'family story' (he never claimed it himself while he was alive so most of us just assumed I guess) was that he fought in this or that battle, which just wasn't true.
Perhaps the journalist (having worked as a journalist once I've seen it happen) either got the story wrong, misquoted him, made a reference that was later misquoted (this war featured the epic defense of Rorke's Drift - became HE FOUGHT AT the epic defense of Rorke's Drift) or - and this sometimes happens - deliberately enhanced the story to make better copy. |
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_________________ Tom "Harlechman" Zulu Total War Team, a Rome TW: BI mod. |
Paul Bryant-Quinn
Guest
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There's another aspect to all this. In a number of articles in the British newspapers of 1879, the locations of the two actions (= Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift) were frequently conflated, and early reports spoke of the disaster which befell the column at Rorke's Drift, for the simple reason that the public in Britain still equated Rorke's Drift with the HQ of No. 3 column and even with Chelmsford's movements on the 22nd. It took a while for the geography of the two battles to be distinguished in the public consciousness, and I have come across several - admittedly provincial - 20th century newspaper articles which continue to refer to Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift as though they were actually two facets of the same military engagement. I also have occasional instances where a paper states that such-and-such a soldier was present at one or another of these battles, but a close reading of what he says shows that he in fact makes no such claim. As Garen and Tom have indicated, then as now, newspapers weren't always above making the most of their material.
Paul |
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Was he spinning a yarn? |
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