430 C/Sgt A Ross 2/24

Ross was the SNCO of G Coy 2/24 but missed the battle being out with the main part of the 2/24. The pouch
containing his Zulu War medal is marked Sgt Maj A Ross l would be grateful if anybody has any information
on him

Hi keith4698

I have the information you require. Can you please PM with your email address so I can send you what I have on Alexander Ross.

1879Graves

Same Ross?
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
London Daily Chronicle - Friday 07 March 1879

Colour-Sergeant Ross appears in at least two photographs that I am aware of.

In Ian Knight’s Nothing Remains But to Fight pages 40-1.  Ross is shown on left of the photograph wearing an undress frock with abbreviated rank insignia of a Colour-Sergeant.  Three gold chevrons surmounted by a crown.

In the same author’s Zulu Isandlwana & Rorke’s Drift… page 32.  Ross is shown seated on the left of the group cradling his rifle in the crook of his right arm.  Again it can be clearly discerned that he is wearing the abbreviated rank insignia.

JY

...and yes, it is the same 2-24 430 Col.-Sergt. Alexander Ross 2/24th.

He gave more details as to the reason he exchanged duties in an another letter to his wife, dated Rorke’s Drift, 3rd February 1879, The Essex Herald, 1st April 1879:
“Next day, Tuesday, was a quiet day with us, and at five in the evening our company mounted outpost duty, about a mile in front of the camp. I having a lot of commissariat stores to hand over to the quartermaster went to the adjutant, Mr. Dyer, and told him so, when he said I needn’t mount with the company, but go on handing over the stores, which I did, therefore remained in the camp all night. Next morning, about two, we were all roused out of our beds, or rather our blankets, to go patrolling into the country, to intercept a lot of Zulus, who had been seen near the camp the previous night.”

In the letter you quote from (dated Rorke’s Drift 24th January 1879, Essex Newsman, 8th March 1879) I found very moving his description of his return to camp with the column when he saw for himself what had become of his company:
“When we got up next morning, we saw such a scene as I think very few see in a life time – the whole of the camp in such a state of confusion – tents burnt, wagons burnt, 17 officers and over 500 men of the 1st Battalion, all my company that were left in camp, and others numbering five officers and 180 men, about 60 men of the artillery and one officer, 60 mounted volunteers, altogether between ten and eleven hundred white men, lying dead on the ground, cut and gashed about most dreadfully, also about 200 of our natives. Tears came into my eyes to look at it. I could stand the sight of it very well, but to see all my company gone except four of us was more than I could stand. They were all lying about the same place, poor Llewellyn with a lump cut out of his cheek, Lopper Greenhill with an ear cut off, in fact there was hardly a body lying there that was not mutilated.”

Ross’s account implies that he must have visited the area of the fighting since he recognized the place where the men of his own company had fallen. G coy’s location was confirmed by 2-24/2452 Corporal John Bassage, C coy 2/24th, in his notebook, when he went to Isandhlwana on 23rd June 1879: “G Company 2/24th Regiment with the exception of a few men, was found lying in the place where they were posted the previous night as an outlying picquet.”137 The night picquet’s drawn-in position would have been beyond the parade ground in front of the tents, strung out between, and parallel with, the Mpofane headwaters and the Nyogane donga.

In addition to Ross there were three G coy men who luckily were out of camp that day driving a waggon out to the Mangeni:

24/1174 Sergt. William, H Coy 2/24th, Letter Rorke’s Drift, 1st February 1879, Brecon County
Times, 29th March 1879, “G Company was on out-post duty, left in camp and all were killed
except Colour-Sergeant Ross, Privates Jones, Baker, and Ethridge [sic for Etheridge] who
were out with us.”

In addition, of course Sergt. Maxfield and Ptes. Connolly and Partridge were at Rorke's Drift where Maxfield was killed.

Hi All,
Alexander Somerville Ross born 1844 Scotland, married Elizabeth Sara [sarah] Joscelyne. the 1881 census Spring Lane Heybridge, Maldon Essex, Elizabeth Sara Soldiers Wife, 5 children at Fathers address. 1901 census Dover Buildings Southwark he is a Army Pensioner Deaf and Blind born Scotland married to Elizabeth Sarah 3 Children. 1911 census 4 Dover Buildings, Old Kent Road, Southwark. She is a Widow 3 children.
Elizabeth was buried 19 July 1938 in Nunhead Cemetery, Sec 16, Grave 29433, Alexander Somerville Ross is also buried in the same grave, he was buried 23 Feb 1909, two of the children are also in the same grave.
Rai Keynshamlighthorse

Coincidence. Their grave is not far from my great-grandparents' grave.