Calverley.

There was chap call 'Calverley' he was supposed to have rode Coghill's horse taken at Isandlwana. Anyone else heard this. And can it be confirmed he was at Isandlwana.

Hi OldH,
Ive ehard of him riding it after Coghill had been killed on it, dont know of any evidence that it is true

thanks Joe

Hi All

There was also Herbert Nunn and a man named Calverley whom Hamu had chosen as his messenger. The military correspondent of ‘The Scotsman’, a Glasgow newspaper. Described the scene: ‘we saw the face of a white man carrying in his hand a flag of truce. On his nearer approach he was discovered to be the Afrikaner (Boer) bearing the name of Calverley. The colonists who were with us instantly recognised him as a man of doubtful reputation who had several times been “wanted” by the authorities’.
(Calverley is a mystery figure. He is described here as an Afrikaner but his name is English. There is little doubt that he was one of two brothers whose widowed mother, Susannah Calverley of Durban, apprenticed both her boys to be bound for five and seven years respectively to one Jacobus Johannes Uys (elder brother of Piet Uys) as general servants. Their apprenticeship papers, dated 1863, stipulated that they were to be cared for as children of Uys, taught to read and write, understand accounts and to be paid one heifer a year each. At the time of Hamu’s defection the older brother, Henry, would have been 26 years old and John 24. Having lived with the Boers for all their lives they would have been taken for Afrikaners and, being locally raised, instantly recognised by many of the volunteers. A popular legend at the time was that the Zulu Army at Isandhlwana had been led by white men, their faces blackened with burnt cork. Calverley, carrying spoils from the battlefield, gave substance to the legend. But such rumours were nonsense. The Zulu Army needed no white man to lead it and certainly none of Calverley’s ilk.)
What damned Calverley was not only the rifle and water bottle that he carried (for both had been looted from the slaughtered 24th Regiment at Isandhlwana) but to top it all, he was riding the horse of none other than Lieutenant Coghill who had met his death, carrying the Regimental Colours, at Fugitive’s Drift. The volunteers and soldiers alike saw items as proof participation if not in the actual battle of Isandhlwana, then at least in the orgy of looting that followed, and many were all for lynching him on the spot. It was probably Wood’s intervention and threat of the severest punishment on any one molesting the man that saved his live.
Calverley brought tidings that Hamu wished to surrender with his people, and wanted to negotiate terms. As far back as November there had been subtle overtures of such an eventuality; Chelmsford had instructed Wood that Hamu must be told. ‘--- he who is not with us is against us, and that if he remains passively in his kraal whilst we are advancing he must not be surprised if we take him for any enemy - I have no intention of remaining neutral inside the Zulu border’.
In no uncertain manner Wood told Calverley that the only terms available were unconditional surrender. Waiting well into the night, lest Calverley should be accosted. Wood sent him back to find his master who was in great danger for Cetshwayo had determined to catch Hamu before he reached the British. Forewarned, Hamu slipped through the net of warriors that guarded the drifts leading out of Zululand and, with many of his followers, found temporary sanctuary with the Swazi King.

Source ‘Blood on the Painted Mountain’ by Ron Lock

So there really was a person called Calverley. I thought he had been made up. Live & Learn.

hi all.
A collegue kindly sent me the following .... I meant to comment on the Calverley thread. You probably know that Prince Hamu had a good deal of power in the kingdom - although he had been raised up as the heir to Mpande's dead brother, Nzibe, he was biologically a son of Mpande - because he wasn't Mpande's heir he could not be considered as a candidate to be king, but he always resented Cetshwayo's position. He ruled with a good deal of autonomy in the northern part of the country, and he and Cetshwayo had quarrelled following the clash between the iNgobamakhosi and the uThulwana in December 1877. Hamu had retired to his own districts and from the first opened up negotiations with the British to surrender. Nevertheless, a lot of the men from his district mustered with their regiments and fought at iSandlwana; after the battle they went back there. The best of the loot thet took with them was given over to Hamu himself. Now, Hamu had three white men living in his district who fulfilled much the same role for him that John Dunn did for Cetshwayo - they were his intermediaries with the white world. One of these was Calverley - whose Christian name I haven't been able to reliably find out - and the other were James Michael Rorke (the son of James Alfred Rorke, of Rorke's Drift fame) and Herbert Nunn. When Hamu was finalising the details for his defection it was Rorke who wrote the letters to Evelyn Wood for him - and of course when Hamu defected he took both his white men and black followers with him. Some of his warriors were the same men who had fought at iSandlwana - they then fought for Wood at Hlobane, so they had an interesting war! When Hamu 'came in' Calverley was riding a horse that someone recognsed as being Coghill's - and he was accused of being at iSandlwana. In fact he wasn't - the horse was part of the loot brought home by the warriors, given to Hamu, and Hamu gave it to Calverley.
Interestingly, Calverley's son was a Sergeant in the Zululand Mounted Rifles in the Rebellion in 1906 - and was the man sent into the Mome Gorge several days after the battle to find out whether Bhambatha had been killed or not. A body was identified to Calverley as Bhambatha's - and rather than lug the deconmposing remains up from the bottom of the gorge, he famously cut the head off and took it back to be officially identified. Although of course there is a story that the wrong man was pointed out to him, and that it was a ruse to help the real Bhambatha to escape
cheers 90th.

Quote :

the horse was part of the loot brought home by the warriors

I thought everything was killed, including the Horses. As it was them that carried the whitemen to the Land of the Zulu.

hi oh2.
A collegue has answered your question...............the Zulus killed all the livestock at iSandlwana - the answer is most of it, but not all. In the fury of the attack - men and animals all mixed up amongst the tents and in the smoke and dust - the Zulus killed everything, including the animals, but one of them comments that once the worst of the fighting was over they calmed down enough to round up what was left. I think Coghill in his diary says he has a spare horse, so that adds up - riding one, and the other one is left in camp. But I'm always intrigued to know how it was recognised later when Calverley was riding it - not just by its appearence, surely?.
cheers 90th.

Quote :

once the worst of the fighting was over they calmed down enough to round up what was left

You mean once the red dust and worn off.

Is this the same Calverley.

"It was only on 13 June - three days after the battle - that a party under Sgt Calverley was sent back into the gorge to obtain proof of Bhambatha's death. This same rebel's hody was found, already in an initial stage of decomposition, and identified as that of Bhambatha. The head was removed, placed in a saddlehag and taken to Nkandla, where it was identified. Official reports emphasise the respect shown for the head, and only a selected few were permitted to view it."

hi chard 1879
If you read my first post near the top your question will be answered
cheers 90th.

With Wood's Column
Note details of the horse and equipment
Natal Witness 1st March 1879
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Natal Witness 6th March 1879
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Natal Witness 8th March 1879
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I appreciate we had a discussion elsewhere on the forum about white men in the service of Cetshwyo during the war but what is this white man doing with plunder from iSandlwana?

Further to my earlier posts above more about Calverley here and his involvement at iSandlwana
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Uniform question for you John are there any markings on an officers coat that shows they are a staff-officer?
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Natal Witness 15th March 1879

Hi Kate

I refer to widow Susannah's two sons above, although there were five:

James Calverley b.1814 d.1850
Susannah Calverley b.c 1821 d.1880

Son's:
James b.circa 1841Transkei, Eastern cape, d.?
William Calverley b.1844 d.?
Richard Calverley b. 1846 d. ?
Henry Calverley b.26 Aug 1850 d.?
John Frederick Calverley b.10 Feb 1852 d. ?

1820 Settlers.

Which two are mentioned above, who knows.

Morning Eddie
Thank you for this.
The man named in the first of the articles above is John Calverley so that will be the fifth chap on your list who would have been 27 in 1879.

Kate,

With regard to Staff Officers’ uniforms in the late 1870’s unknowingly you are actually familiar with some of the variations.

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Major-General Lord Chelmsford circa 1878.
General Staff Officer’s Patrol Jacket.
(John Young Collection)

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Captain & Lt.-Colonel F. W. E. Forestier Walker, 1st Battalion Scots Guards.
Staff Officer, Military Secretary. KWT
(John Young Collection)

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Lieutenant Nevill Coghill, General Officer’s A.D.C. Seated crossed leg.
Captain Henry Hallam Parr, Governor’s A.D.C. Centre Standing of three.
(John Young Collection)

Parr is still wearing his infantry pattern patrol jacket, as he was only recently appointed to be Frere’s A.D.C., both Parr and Coghill are wearing the Staff Officers’ pattern forage cap.  When photographed later in 1879 Parr wears the Staff Officers’ pattern patrol jacket.

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Brevet Lt.-Colonel Herbert Stewart.
Wearing the Staff Officer’s Frock Coat, circa 1880.
(John Young Collection)

Confused?

JY

Thanks John some smashing photos there.
So with all that decoration down the front it would be obvious it was a Staff Officers jacket. I appreciate there were other Staff College trained offices with LC but you know what I'm thinking

Was going to reply sooner but we have just had our own load shedding. Knocked everything out for over an hour.

Natal Witness 10th April 1879
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Clonmel Chronicle - Saturday 19 April 1879

Hi All
John Calverley with the little information in the newspaper reports, he was born in england before 1879, so say born between 1840 and 1857, could not find much there is a John Calverley passport application in 1856 and just a J Calverley in 1878, but he was supposed to be in the Transvaal late 1878. Giving 1856 as a date to go by i looked at all the John Calverley's born from 1824 to 1879 in the 1851 census, 18 come from the Yorkshire area and 6 from Lancaster. It would seem he came from one of these two areas.
Rai KLH

I noticed with interest the photos of Henry Hallam Parr above. These are images I haven’t seen before despite extensive research on Parr. I wonder if any forum members here might know if there are any other images of him in existence? Perhaps in the John Young Collection referenced above? Many thanks

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I have a small number of photographs of Henry Hallam Parr in my collection. Please drop me a line and we can discuss them further.

Regards,

JY

Thank you, I have sent you a message