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DateOriginal Topic
7th September 2002Medal Rolls
By Gary S. Edinger
I know that hard copies of the Zulu War Medal Rolls are hard to come by. Is anyone aware of any postings of the Rolls on the Web?
DateReplies
14th September 2002Martin Everett
Dear Gary,
As far as know - the answer is no. Its huge size of roll - some 24,000 or is it 34,000 names. Someone will correct me. Handwritten - all to be keyed in - a massive task. The 24th Foot (2,500 names!) and the 80th Foot have published books. Other historians have covered the Rorke's Drift and Isandhlwana participants in some detail. If you are looking for details on a particular soldier - just post your question and see what you get.
5th October 2002John S Radburn
Hi Gary & Martin
Over the last 6/7 years I have typed into my own database the whole of the medal roll, taking into account only the recipients of the medals that involved the 1879 medal or 'no clasp' medals, it is arranged in alphabetical order, also included is such information that I have found in various books and web site information.
Maybe eventually I will get this onto a saleable disk, but it is in no way a quarter complete.
If anyone requires any information on anyone please do not hesitate to contact me, who knows what i've got.
Regards
John
6th October 2002Martin Everett
Dear John,
I am sorry I appear to pour cold water on what you are doing but as a registered museum I have to be aware of the UK Laws of Copyright. If you are using published material which is still governed by these laws - such as The Noble 24th, The Silver Wreath, The Zulu War and 80th Foot and Mackinnon & Shadbolt - you may find you may be infringing the law if you publish it on CD without the permission of the authors.
7th October 2002John Young
Dear Martin,

A little bit curious as to your comment regarding 'Mackinnon & Shadbolt', why do you include that work in list?

J.P. Mackinnon and S.H. Shadbolt's work 'The South African Campaign of 1879' was first published in 1880, the book was subsequently reprinted in 1882 to include the photograph of John Thirkill. To my knowledge the work has been reproduced in various forms at least four times since John Hayward reprinted it in the early 1970's.

I was involved in the 1995 reproduction of the book with Greenhill Books, it is my belief an extensive search was undertaken to discover whether there were any literary heirs - there apparently were none and the work was reproduced without let or hinderance. The only new copyrighted material in the book was my index.

I would be grateful if you could please explain your comment with regard to that publication?

As far as the other works you mention these have been collated from material that, for the most part, is Crown Copyright, all of the publications acknowledge that fact, a fact that I am sure John Radburn is also aware.

No-one is intentionally, I believe, endeavouring to denude the Museum at Brecon of a source of income. I am sure if John's work does come to fruitition it would make a worthy sale item at the Museum.

John Young,
Chairman,
Anglo-Zulu War Research Society.
8th October 2002Martin Everett
Dear John, John and others

I was only offering general advice to those considering the publication of material in printed form or available through the Internet. I was not expecting to get my head bitten off by experts.

I can only restate that if somone is thinking of keying/scanning material from, say D R Forsyth's South Africa War Medal Roll 1877-79 or using material from other published works on the AZW, then I would strongly advise checking with the owners of the copyright of these publications before doing so. It will save a lot of tears later. This warning also applies to Crown Copyright material.

If anyone is not sure about the law, then further information on copyright can be obtained from:

www.pro.gov.uk/about/copyright.htm

If anyone wants answers to specific questions then Tim Padfield - the Copyright Officer at the PRO at Kew will help - email
[email protected]
[email protected]

I trust this helps.