Trooper Garland

Subject: Trooper Garland Mon Dec 07, 2009 10:09 pm

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While besieged for more than two months at the mission station at Eshowe during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, the British garrison had
been plagued by Zulu snipers on the nearby hill Mbombotshana. Volunteers were called upon to clear the enemy from the heights and six men stepped forward including Trooper Garland of the Victoria Mounted Rifles. That night the men made their way to the top of the hill and drove off the Zulu riflemen the next morning. For his actions Garland received a Mention in Despatches. After the war he continued to serve in Victoria Mounted Rifles and later the Natal
Mounted Rifles.

Source: Soldiers of the queen.

Posts : 3387 Join date : 2009-03-03 Location : Devon

GARLAND Alpheus Howe (H). B Verulam, Natal 24.9.1854. Enlisted 1877. Trooper, Victoria Mounted Rifles, Zulu War 1879. In February 1879 he was prominent during the operations around Eshowe, notably for ambushing Zulu scouts. Mentioned-in-despatches ’. Quartermaster 30.10.85. (Served 18 years with the Volunteers) Kearsney Rifle Association c 1900. Zulu Border Rifle Association c July 01. Not called out for active service during the Anglo-Boer War. Auctioneer. Resided Verulam, Natal. Died at the age of 85 years and buried in Stanger Cemetery, Natal. He was the son of William Garland MLA a Natal colonist of note.

Posts : 2558 Join date : 2009-04-06 Age : 62 Location : UK

Can we expect a photo of Grave. Wink

Posts : 3387 Join date : 2009-03-03 Location : Devon

Hi John

This is one grave, I have not got Mad

Subject: Re: Trooper Garland Thu Oct 04, 2012 10:49 pm

" H. Garland who as a trooper in the Victoria He
wears the 1877-79 South Africa Medal (which is often referred to as the Zulu War Medal) with the single clasp awarded for that war. The Natal Mounted Rifles were formed in 1888 from several Zulu War-era volunteer units including the Victoria Mounted Rifles (VMR), the Stanger Mounted Rifles, the Alexandra Mounted Rifles and the Durban Mounted Rifles.

The son of a prominent Natal resident Thomas William Garland of Kent and his wife Henrietta, Garland was born in Natal on 24 September, 1854.

He enlisted as a trooper in the VMR in 1877 and served as previously stated in the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, receiving a Mention in Despatches for actions around the mission station at Eshowe. After the war he continued with the Natal volunteers serving for some 18 years total and eventually rising to the rank of Quarter-Master (30 October, 1885). The photograph in the first post probably shows him while holding that rank. He does not seem to have done any active service during the Anglo-Boer War.

He was active in several other organizations including the Kearsney Rifle Association and the Zulu Border Rifle Association. He made his living in civilian life as a draper and auctioneer. On 7 May, 1881 he married Miss Elizabeth Stanley of Chatham, Kent. The couple had at least one child, Leslie Caskell Garland who died at the age of two in 1899.

Garland became something of a celebrity in Stanger in his later years being referred to as "Old Alph" by the locals. In Carel Birkby's 1937 book Zulu Journey the author describes having a billiards game with Old Alph as he recounts his memories of early Natal and his part in the Anglo-Zulu War. One interesting event took place at Eshowe. While on vedette duty he slipped off to have a swim and was almost caught by the Zulus. In the book he also laments the fact that as a boy he did not buy a section of land in D'Urban for the then asking price of £1 per acre. By the time Alph was playing his billiard game the same land was selling for £7 per square foot! In the book the author describes Garland as roaming "around the hot town with a smile and a joke and a challenge to billiards for everyone." Birkby also stated a game of billiards with Garland was like "a cross between a literature lesson and a music-hall turn.". These descriptions are somewhat at odds with the formidably stoic looking figure in the above photo.In Zulu Journey Old Alph makes no mention of serving during the Anglo-Boer War. Perhaps the subject never came
up but it could also imply as I surmised above that by the turn of the century his soldiering days were behind him. No mention of him has been found in the medal rolls associated with the Anglo-Boer War.

He lived to the ripe old age of 85 years, dying on 16 October, 1939 and was buried at the cemetery at Stanger.

Cabinet Photograph
William Laws Caney - Photographer
Late of D'Urban & Kimberly, South Africa 1890
Soldiers of the Queen.

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