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Date	Original Topic
1st July 2003	Booth's Cigarette Card By Jonathan Hicks Does anyone have any information regarding the depiction of Booth's retreat from the Ntombe River on a 'Heroic Deeds' cigarette card e.g manufacturer, card number? Thanks! Jonathan
Date	Replies
1st July 2003	Ron Sheeley Jonathan, The card about which you are seeking information is from a set named "Heroic Deeds" from Scissors Cigarettes of W.D. and H.D. Wills. It is #14 of a set of 30. It is captioned on the front as "Col. Serg. Anthony Booth, 80th Regt., rallying the survivors of the disaster at the Intombi River, Zulu War, 1879." On the reverse is this description: "On March 11-12th, 1879, a convoy of wagons, guarded by one company of the 80th Regt., laagered up on the Intombi River, and by inconceivable carelessness only one sentry was posted. At midnight the convoy was attacked by 4000 Zulus. The sentry fired his rifle and alarmed the camp before he was killed, but a general massacre ensued. A few men who had been sleeping on the opposite side of the river opened fire, but were unable to aid their comrades. The party was without an officer, but Col. Sergt. Booth, who was in charge, bravely rallied them, and beat a skilful retreat with the survivors to Luneberg, for which was awarded the V.C." The card is quite well done and is in color. I am not sure of the date it was produced but would guess circa 1914. If you would like a scan of the card, I would be happy to send you one. Also I have a cdv in my collection of Colour Sergeant Booth which I can scan if you'd like to see image. You also might be interested in knowing that there was a video produced in the UK several years back entitled "Colour Sergeant Booth and the V.C." Hope this information is helpful.