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Lt Godwin-Austen
Dawn


Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Posts: 610
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
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I've read in the old forum that Lt Godwin-Austen should have been in charge of B company at Rorke's Drift but wasn't because he had been wounded. Can anyone tell me where and how he was wounded? Also, if he was well enough to go to Isandlwana, why was he not given back command of his company?
Dawn
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raiengland


Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Posts: 17
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Hi, their were two Godwin-Austen brothers in the 2/24th Alfred G was CO of 'B'Company until he was wounded in the Pirie Bush Eastern Cape Frontier 1878, he then returned to the UK, his younger brother Frederick would be killed at Isandlwana on 22 jan 1879,
look on the links for 1879memorials.com there is a Godwin-Austen, memorial on the site.
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Dawn


Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Posts: 610
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
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Thanks, I've obviously read the two as one and the same person. Embarassed
Dawn
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Martin Everett


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 786
Location: Brecon
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:Dawn
This may help your story - Alfred G-A had a dog (whose name escape's me for the moment - but I am sure someone will supply it). When Alfred was sent home - the dog remained with B Company as their mascot and was present at the Defence of Rorke's Drift.

I have not forgotten your earlier query about the wagons prior to Isandhlwana. There is nothing in the battalion digests, but i am look to se whether there is mention in other sources.

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Martin Everett
Brecon, Powys
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Jamie


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 149
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
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Wasn't Pip was it?

I thought the dog at Rorke's Drift belonged to Coghill or Melville that was left behind when the advance on Isandlwana began.

Not 100% sure though!
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Dawn


Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Posts: 610
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
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I've believe the dog's name was Pip and that it was a Spaniel. It's because of the dog that I asked about Godwin-Austen, but I needed the captain, not the lieutenant. I've since found out there were three brothers in all, the other one was a lieutentant-colonel so someone for younger brother Frederick to look up to, I guess.

Martin
Thanks for taking the time to help me out.

Dawn
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Julian whybra


Joined: 03 Sep 2005
Posts: 437
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The name Pip I think you'll find was an invention of DR Morris.
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Dawn


Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Posts: 610
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
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I don't think anyone really knows the name of the dog. I had also heard that it was called Dick. I read that it is in the picture taken of the 24th at Pinetown. I have a picture of G company taken in Pinetown and I cannot see a dog. If someone has said picture, perhaps they could post it. And if anyone knows the name for sure, perhaps they can post that too. However, in the scheme of things, I don't think the dog's name is that important.
Dawn
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Peter Quantrill
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test post (That's the way! Alan Very Happy)
a.j


Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 80
Location: Thornaby-On-Tees, Great Britain
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Isn't Lt Godwin Austin the only man from Isandhlwana to be given a proper burial because his brother identified the body?
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Martin Everett


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 786
Location: Brecon
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If you mean his body was brought back to UK for burial - then that was Lt Edgar Anstey 2/24th whose body was brought back by Capt Thomas Anstey RE. There are other proper burials.

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Martin Everett
Brecon, Powys
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Dawn


Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Posts: 610
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
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And you can all stop looking because I found the picture of the dog. The photograph is captioned "A photograph of the British soldiers who defended Rorke's Drift in January 1879" and front right is the spaniel. Whether it is Surgeon Reynolds sitting next to him I don't know. Now if pictures could talk, they'd tell me the dog's name and put us all out of our misery.
Dawn
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Peter Ewart


Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Posts: 1797
Location: Near Canterbury, Kent, England.
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Is it not likely that there may well have been several dogs at RD during the engagement? It is certainly known that dogs and other stray animals were habitually picked up by British soldiers on campaign but often had to be left behind for obvious reasons on certain occasions.

The arrangements at RD during that December & January surely suggest that any number might have been left there after the column finally moved on, especially given the transitory nature of the arrangements, with thousand and thousands of men and beasts moving through the camps on both sides of the river during those few weeks. The overcrowding, chaos and squalor which ensued in February and March (with yet more coming and going in huge numbers) suggests to me that dogs and other "pets" were coming and going just as much as they had been earlier.

I understand the well known photos of "B" Coy taken at Pinetown around September 1879 don't necessarily contain exactly the same group of men who had defended RD, and it is certainly possible (probable?) that any animal included in the photo after the war could easily have been picked up at any time since January. Although I haven't checked Lee Stevenson's book for this (I'll let someone else do it(!) & I expect the well known Godwin-Austen story will emerge) it seems to me that there will have to be at least one reliable eye-witness account of a dog there on the 22nd/23rd, and even that wouldn't mean a dog seen in a photo months later was the same one. And bestowing a name on one of these animals seems rather fanciful to me, even if the soldiers did at the time. As Julian has said, Morris appears to have done just this in TWOTS, and if that is the first intimation of the existence of the name "Pip", then I think we can dismiss it as fiction.

Peter
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Martin Everett


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 786
Location: Brecon
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Dawn,
Surgeon Reynold had a dog called 'Dick' who was at RD along with 'Pip' who belonged to Godwin-Austen. 'Pip' is likely to be in photograph of B Company taken a Pine Town.

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Martin Everett
Brecon, Powys
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Ian Woodason


Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Posts: 8
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But we do know one dog, by name, that was wounded at the battle of Isandlwana and later (though not that day!)at Rorke's Drift - Lion
Ian
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Lt Godwin-Austen
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