7
« on: Tuesday 17 January 12 11:49 GMT (UK) »
JONES, Private Robert (24th Foot)
Auction Date: 11 Jun 96
Lot Number: 468
Category: GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY
Estimate: £80000-£120000
Hammer Price: £80000
Description
The Zulu War Victoria Cross Pair Awarded to Private Robert Jones, 2nd Battalion, 24th Foot, for his Gallantry in Saving the Lives of Six Patients from the Hospital during the Historic Defence of the Mission Station at Rorke’s Drift on 22nd and 23rd January 1879
Victoria Cross, the reverse of the suspension bar officially inscribed (Private Robert Jones, 2-24th Regt.), the reverse centre of the Cross officially dated ‘22. 23. Jany. 1879.’
South Africa 1877-79, clasp, 1877-8-9 (V.C. 716 Pte. R. Jones, 2-24th Foot)
Old repair to the ribbon slot on the upper part of the suspension bar of the Victoria Cross, contact marks and pitting to both medals, a fine and historic pair (2)
Footnote
Victoria Cross (jointly with 804 Private William Jones) London Gazette 2 May, 1879: ‘Robert Jones, Private, 2nd Battn. 24th Regt. At the hospital, in a ward facing the hill, Private William Jones and Private Robert Jones defended the post to the last, until six out of the seven patients it contained had been removed. The seventh, Sergt. Maxfield, was delirious through fever. Although they had previously dressed him, they were unable to induce him to move. When Private Robert Jones returned to endeavour to carry him away, he found him being stabbed by Zulus as he lay in his bed.’
The news of the epic defence, in early 1879, of the remote outpost at Rorke’s Drift against some 4,000 Zulu warriors, flushed with victory following the annihilation of the 1st Battalion, 24th Foot at Isandhlwana, thrilled Victorian Britain and has been hallowed ever since as one of the most heroic stands in military history. The backbone of the Rorke’s Drift garrison consisted of ninety-five men belonging to ‘B’ Company of the 2nd Battalion, 24th Foot. Acts of gallantry performed during the defence resulted in the awards of eleven Victoria Crosses - the highest number ever conferred for a single action - with seven of them going to members of ‘B’ Company. Of those seven, only Robert Jones’s Cross has failed down the years to find its way into the Regimental museum of the South Wales Borderers. The action has inspired numerous artists and, as a recipient of the Victoria Cross, Robert Jones’s heroism has been celebrated in every major work from Lady Elizabeth Butler’s painting The Defence of Rorke’s Drift, January 22nd 1879, to the 1964 cinema classic Zulu, in which Jones’s part was played by actor Denys Graham. It has been said that Robert Jones never really escaped from the traumatic events at Rorke’s Drift and continued to be haunted by visions of the lethal contest between thrusting bayonet and the vicious stab and slash of the assegai until he met his tragic end at the age of forty-one. However, at the time, the performance of Jones and his kind did much to restore public morale after the Isandhlwana disaster, and has been seen ever since as epitomising the stalwart and disciplined fighting qualities of the British infantryman.
Robert Jones, a farm worker’s son, was born into the agricultural community of Tynewydd, Clytha, near Raglan, Monmouthshire, on 19 August, 1857. Described as ‘a typical Welsh country boy’, he worked alongside his father on the land until he was eighteen when, against his family’s wishes, he went off to Monmouth to enlist into the 24th Regiment of Foot on 10 January, 1876. On the 28th of that month, 716 Jones, as he was now known among the proliferation of other Joneses in the regiment, was posted to the 2nd Battalion at Dover. Recorded on enlistment as being five feet seven and a half inches tall, with a fresh complexion, grey eyes and brown hair, he embarked for South Africa in February 1878 for service in the Cape Frontier War.
RIP Great Grandad. I wouldn't be here if you hadn't have made it.