Farrier-Sergeant Robert Whinham, Circumstance of Death at Isandlwana

The Evening Star of 14 August 1889, under the headline 'The War Service of an Artillery Battery', includes a potted history of N/5 Battery. Within this is included a very brief description of the Battery's fate at Isandlwana, with a particular focus on the circumstances of the death of Farrier-Sergeant Robert Whinham. Presumably, it ultimately derives from an eyewitness to the aftermath.

"With soldierly devotion, Captain Stuart-Smith [sic] made a last desperate effort of spike the guns, but he was assegaied in the attempt, and fell beside Farrier-Sergeant Whenham [sic], a man of towering height and magnificent physique, who sold his life dearly, and whose body was found surrounded by Zulus whom he had sent before him to another world. Sergeant Edwards also fell at Isandula. Fortunately the greater part of the battery was away from the camp with Lord Chelmsford's reconnoitring force, and thus escaped annihilation."

I've not come across this reference before, and cannot see it on the site, so I thought it word adding.

All the best
Lee

Except Smith did not make an attempt to spike the guns and he was not assegaied in the attempt but was killed on the Fugitives' Trail down by the river.
I think this is a fanciful account and originated not necessarily from a genuine eye-witness.

The location of the death is not given in the report, merely that Whinham's corpse was besides Smith's, and that he evidently died fighting. Nor does it say that the guns *were* spiked, rather that an effort was made. This may, of course, have been an incorrect assumption, made by either the witness or the writer, or someone in between - it would not have been outlandish for someone to have assumed that fleeing artillery would have tried to spike their guns, even if in fact they did not.

All the best,
Lee

But Smith was not assegaied/killed trying to spike the gun and his body was not found near one. Neither gun ended up anywhere near the river which is where Smith was eventually assegaied (and to which there was a surviving eye-witness).
The late date of the paper does not help the report.

I shall in the near future be including a piece on Whinham in one of the Studies in the Zulu War. It will include a portrait photo and his letters up until the battle.

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