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Sapper Mason
Joined: 05 Sep 2005 |
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Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 8:36 pm |
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, Dear John & Forum ,
Let me again state that of the NON OFFICERS at Rorke's Drift the SENIOR RANKING NCO was G W MABIN , he got promoted to this rank in May 1875 , i cede the fact that BOURNE was the SNCO for the men under his command ( 24th ) but was not promoted to a C / Sgt till 1878, i am sure if Maj Spalding had of commmanded that day he would not have called upon a Chief Clerk to oversee the men , this was down to their C / Sgt , FRANK BOURNE .
My point is that Mabin in seniority was the senior , i have as requested some data on Mabin and the article i wrote , in that article is a picture of Mabin taken in 1868 , shortly after his enlistment and also later in life with his brother Samuel , both would make good comparisons with the Cpl of the Rifle Brigade as shown in this forum .
Data on MABIN :
Upon enlistment , 5 foot 6 and a half inches , Fresh Complexion , Brown Hair , Grey eyes , 33 and a quarter inch chest . Enlisted 29 th May 1868 , promoted Cpl 3 rd July 1870 , transfered to Military Clerks , 19th May 1872. In total awarded 6 ( MAXIMUM ) GOOD CONDUCT BADGES.received the first in Rifle Brigade 2nd June 1870, received second GC badge 1st June 1874 and subsequent promotions to Sgt Major and 4 other gc awards .
The pictures of Mabin described earlier can be found in " Medal News " , pages 20&21 , June July issue , 2003. By the way , i am no longer a member of the 1879 group as i was when this article was written . " Sapper " If indeed this is a picture of GW Mabin tis a rare find ! .
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Peter Ewart
Joined: 31 Aug 2005 |
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Location: Near Canterbury, Kent, England. |
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Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 10:56 am |
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Andrew
The "journal" or memorandum book was entered up (correct me if I'm out by very far here, John) in very late 1904 or very early 1905, at the time of his retirement as a CF and his return to Preston from his last posting, Harrismith.
My researches into his life show that, at every stage and in every location, he was a voracious collector of curios, objets d'arts, exotic artefacts and souvenir momentoes, both during his missionary life and CF service but also during his very active retirement, and although he did tend to offload some items to bodies or organisations dear to his heart during his lifetime, the final collection accrued by the end of his life was almost unbelievably large, so that I have great difficulty in discovering where he stored it all. His hotel accommodation in Preston would surely not have been adequate - perhaps his former comrades at Fulwood allowed him to use some garrison buildings as a lock-up!!!
In his letters home from Zululand, Harness reminds us of how keen most officers were to take home souvenirs (usually spears and shields etc) and how his own personal "supply" dwindled repeatedly as he met requests from officers who were about to leave for home, for a spear here or a shield there. Grenfell boasts of the Zulu skull he removed from the battlefield of Ulundi on a return trip a year or two later!
However, it is difficult to imagine anyone being more acquisitional* than Smith, who amassed a collection of spears, shields, knives, powder horns, knobkerries, bugles, bayonets, sheaths, bows, arrows, quivers of crocodile hide, sticks, sandals, camel hides, skins, karosses, dishes etc. etc., all carefully catalogued as to battle or campaign and from which enemy they'd been looted from - the Langalibalele Rebellion, Rorke's Drift, Ulundi, El Teb, Tamai, Suakin, Upper Nile, Darfour, Ginnis etc., and whether from Hlubis, Zulus, Haddendowahs, Dervishes, Nubians or Egyptians, including material lost by Baker Pasha's defeated force and recaptured later.
Many of these were given away over the years and were all, of course, in addition to the huge collection of very valuable curios acquired worldwide up until his his late 60s at least, which included quite a pile of exotic Maltese material from his time there and some Far Eastern curios from later in life. I am reasonably certain, after discussing with John at the time he acquired the journal/diary, that what John has is Smith's attempt to create (or update) the inventory of his collection at the time of his retirement on return from S Africa at Christmas 1904, which he spent in Preston after taking the "East Coast Route" home, passing by (and perhaps returning to) Suakin once more on his way. He continued to add much more to his collection in the following years, however.
Peter
* For acquisitional read acquisitive!
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Last edited by Peter Ewart on Tue Oct 09, 2007 9:11 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Peter Ewart
Joined: 31 Aug 2005 |
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Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 1:40 pm |
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Andrew
I haven't seen the journal which John acquired earlier this year, but from his description (given before he'd taken delivery, if memory serves) it indicated a journal or diary used by Smith to enter up the details of his collection. Whether Smith included the lot - or whether it may have been compiled a few months later than I mentioned above, going by the Oct date JY mentions - I cannot say.
What I can confirm is that, sadly for us(!) the whole collection was broken up a few months after his death when his executors arranged for it all to be auctioned. Two days were allocated for the sale, the catalogue for which extended to 32 pages and nearly 600 numbered items and groups, not counting his books, trunks and many other sundries. It might be worth my including the whole catalogue as an appendix to my biography of Smith, which I hope to complete next year.
Most of the extensive collection of "military loot" I decribed earlier was donated to others during his own lifetime - you'd be amazed at the trouble he went to packing it up & despatching it! - and at least two museums ended up with some of it, although all these items have since been moved on to I know what where. I have made some efforts to ascertain where one or two donations (such as his own huge personal copy of the de Neuville picture) are now, but without success, despite being able to track them well into the 20th century.
Some very interesting bits and pieces remain in the family and I haven't given up all hope of establishing who acquired some of the items auctioned, as a by-product of my researches. Many of the items were far too valuable for museums to have become involved, unless the immediate post-war depression had an effect. A few spears and shields did survive in his collection until after his death, plus one or two items of R/Drift provenance. (He lost many of his treasured possession in the hospital fire there).
Peter
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Peter Ewart
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Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 6:54 pm |
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Andrew
Well, Smith was hardly qualified to comment on Durnford's military prowess, although he had known him for five years before the AZW, as a result of their involvement in the "Kafir Rebellion" of 1873. Durnford, of course, also designed the fort at Estcourt, Smith's parish for seven years.
I don't know his opinion of Durnford's commission work at Rorke's Drift in 1878 but he fell distinctly into the colonists' camp during the post-BRP scandal involving Pine and Shepstone on one part and Colenso and Durnford on the other. He could hardly side with Colenso, given the situation between the Diocese of Natal & the Diocese of Maritzburg, in which Colenso was persona non grata and against whom Smith started "briefing" in his letters home as soon as he arrived in S Africa, during what became a very interesting part of Smith's life.
Peter
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David Langley
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Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2012 4:00 pm |
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Data on MABIN :
Upon enlistment , 5 foot 6 and a half inches , Fresh Complexion , Brown Hair , Grey eyes , 33 and a quarter inch chest . Enlisted 29 th May 1868 , promoted Cpl 3 rd July 1870 , transfered to Military Clerks , 19th May 1872. In total awarded 6 ( MAXIMUM ) GOOD CONDUCT BADGES.received the first in Rifle Brigade 2nd June 1870, received second GC badge 1st June 1874 and subsequent promotions to Sgt Major and 4 other gc awards .
The GC badge awards as described are intriguing, counter-intuitive and don't seem to make sense. These are the rules Royal Warrant 1870 unchanged until 1881:
2 years, 6, 12, 18, 23 and 28 years, with possible acceleration by two years for the last three badges. Eligible at that time full corporal and below.
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