I am currently training to be a battlefield tour guide here in South Africa. It’s a slow process and I am guilty of procrastinating with my homework.
But, I have joined The Battlefield Guides Association and have been lucky enough to join them for some recent educational trips.
The last one I attended happened, at the start of September, and was a chance for experienced guides to visit some little-known corners of the Anglo-Zulu War.
It really is a pleasure to meet such a bunch of friendly and knowledgable people, and I really did learn so much from the experience.
Below is the Video diary I kept of our latest trip (the video here goes live at 4pm UK time on Thursday Sept 23rd):
If you want to see on a map the places shown in the film then please use the app https://what3words.com/ and then you can just search for the locations below (it really is an excellent app).
Conference Hill – unmodified.thicken.manufacturer
Ntombe Drift (exact site I was standing to give my lecture in the video) – ironworker.agreeable.twinning
Filter and Larsen memorial – mainly.squinting.handsets
Fort Clery, Luneburg – beacon.networks.unclear
Graves of Captain Moriarty and Surgeon Cobbin – mediocrity.humiliated.implores
Hopefully South Africa will soon be removed from the UK Covid red list and lots of people can begin to visit us again and see the amazing battlefields.
redcoathistory.com 
Hello
I have just found you on YouTube and watched the item about little known sites, awesome is all I can say , my great grandfather was stationed at luneburg during the Zulu war, he was with the 2nd 4th king’s own regiment and this is the first time I’ve seen anyone visit the place he was at, I have been researching the Zulu war for about twenty years now and am hoping to write a book about the 2nd 4th foot in the Zulu war so I found this absolutely fascinating, as I live in England we don’t get much information about that area or the regiment I am interested in, so I would just like to say thank you, I hope you might go back there and show us some more of the area, I did hear about a old graveyard that has some soldiers who died from different diseases whilst stationed there and would love to find out if it still exists, also just as a last point , my relative was involved in the last skirmish of the Zulu war when they blew up mbelinis caves on the 8th September 1879
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Hi Alan, thanks a lot for sharing that. Really lovely to hear.
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Bit of history. I am 89 yr old . My father James George(Jimmy) Smith came over in 1900 as a 18yr old Sapper withe British. He was born and raised in Richmond, London an decided to remain after the war was over. Started work for then GPO mostly concerned with telephone communication. Met a Boerre Meisie. They got married, she could not speak English, he was not over concerned with Afrikaans…but boy!!! 9 yes nine children later , who needed language if the music was that good.
I am the last survivor, have also married a Boerre Meisie, but because of medical incompetence, no children( not my fault, doctors).
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