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Was he spinning a yarn?
RobB


Joined: 21 Feb 2006
Posts: 3
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I've recently been given an old newspaper clipping ( from Lincolnshire's "Chronicle and Leader" October 1934) which features an interview with my great great grandfather, John Theobald, who was just celebrating his 80th birthday.

Here's a few extracts from the article:

'When he was 20 Mr. Theobald gave up working on the land to join the Royal Artillery. As a groom, he sailed to South Africa with horses of the regiment in 1879........Mr.Theobald was one of the gallant band of 60 men who defended the small mission station at Rorke's Drift, on the border of Zulu-land, against repeated attacks of 3,000 Zulu warriors and he was present at the capture of King Cetywayo, which resulted in the appointment of an English resident and the division of the country into 13 districts,each governed by abn independent chief. Ulandi was the chief military kraal where the king resided. According to Mr. Theobald, Cetywayo was not to be found when the troops visited Ulandi, but the soldiers surprised two Zulu men and a woman cooking a hearty meal over a glowing fire.'

And so the article goes on,with tales of horses neck deep in water during the sea journeys to South Africa.

What I would like to know is was old John Theobald ( 89892, Royal Field Artillery )just spinning a yarn to the newspaper reporter who visited him or could he really have been at Rorke's Drift?
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Martin Everett


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 786
Location: Brecon
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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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RobB


Joined: 21 Feb 2006
Posts: 3
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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


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
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Location: Brecon
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Please remember we are answering this type of question every day. No Theobald at RD.

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Johnny_H


Joined: 19 Feb 2006
Posts: 101
Location: Canada, Halifax Nova Scotia
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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

Firstly, Lt-Gen The Hon Edward Cornwallis was Colonel of the 24th - 1752 to 1776.

Also Major Wilsone Black - he who was in command of the party who found the Queen's Colour of 1/24th in the Buffallo River after Isandlwana was in Halifax twice as a staff offcier 1867-1872 and 1882-1887.

There you go.


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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peterw


Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 865
Location: UK
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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


Joined: 21 Feb 2006
Posts: 3
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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


Joined: 07 Sep 2005
Posts: 34
Location: UK
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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!

Smile

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family yarns
Tom516


Joined: 08 Feb 2006
Posts: 136
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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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Paul Bryant-Quinn
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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
Was he spinning a yarn?
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