Zulu Dawn:“Excuse me, my Lord, there's something I must convey to you. I rode along the track down to Rorke's Drift. The sky above is red with fire. Your orders my Lord? Do we move to the drift?”
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Ambrose Loft, an Englishman who was described in the New York Herald in April 1914 as someone who 'had lived more adventures than many authors had written about', died in his late forties.
This intriguing story begins in Manchester, where he was born. Some of his boyhood was spent in Halifax and as a young man he served in the Zulu Wars and the Boer War, after which he became a globe-trotting war correspondent. In 1911 he offered his services to the Greeks in the Balkan Wars and became a much-decorated Colonel, and also the godfather to King Constantine's daughter Princess Elizabeth.
On the outbreak of World War I, by which time he was in his mid to late forties, he joined the Canadian forces in Canada as a private soldier. On arrival in England he was commissioned as an officer in the Royal Field Artillery and became Adjutant to the 63rd Brigade.
In March 1915 he was badly injured by some stampeding horses during an inspection of the Brigade by the King. He was invalided out of the Army in June and returned to his home in Manchester in July. He subsequently came to live with his in-laws in March 1916 at South Parade, Cleckheaton and died there three months later. His father-in-law, Mr Russell, was a retired teacher who had only lived in the area for two years.
As he was a Spenborough resident at the time of his death he is entitled to his place on the War Memorial but no other real connection with the area can be found. He also appears on the St John's Church War Memorial."
Source: world war one 1914-1918
90th
Posts : 10356 Join date : 2009-04-07 Age : 65 Location : Melbourne, Australia
Subject: Capt Ambrose Arthur Loft . Sun Mar 03, 2013 11:24 pm
Would be interesting to find out if which Regt he was in during the zulu war . I checked the 24th Regt Rolls and the Rolls of the R.Artillery , didnt see him . Cheers 90th.
rai
Posts : 212 Join date : 2009-10-16
Subject: loft Mon Mar 04, 2013 8:25 am
Hi All Sorry to say that Ambrose Arthur Loft did not serve in the Zulu War 1879, it is more likely the Matabele Wars even this is pushing it for his date of birth. According to the BMD site he was born in 1883 in the district of Halifax. This is another instance where the press have called any coloured fellow the British Army were fighting Zulus?? Not by there correct names which could be Fingo, Basuto, Kaffir, Qaika, Matabele, etc This is the same way all the tribes we were fighting in the Sudan between 1884-1897 were collectively Fuzzy Wuzzys. Rai Keynshamlighthorse
90th
Posts : 10356 Join date : 2009-04-07 Age : 65 Location : Melbourne, Australia
Subject: Re: CAPTAIN (AMBROSE ARTHUR LOFT Mon Mar 04, 2013 12:03 pm
Thanks Rai much appreciated , maybe we can strike Loft from the thread seeing as though he wasnt in the AZW . Cheers 90th.
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