Museum of the Staffordshire Regiment Whittington Barracks

After visiting Booth's Grave we went onto the museum which holds his VC ,a fantastic place lots to see and wonderful staff . A must visit thats got lots tosee and lots for the kids as well.

A rather splendid diorama of the battle of Ulundi using flats 

Graves of the heroes of the Zulu War -Sergeant Anthony Booth VC

A change of title now we have visited our first non Rorkes Drift Zulu war grave , Booth earned his VC whilst sergeant of the 80th Regiment at Intombe on the 12th March 1879 ,his actions saved many mens lives after being deserted by their officer ,the day after the battle he was promoted to colour Sergeant .

The large size of the memorial is highligted by my modelling skills

Graves of the Defenders of Rorkes Drift -Private Joseph Bromwich

A really nice headstone for Joseph in Wolverhamptons Bilston Cemetery .

Graves of the Defenders of Rorkes Drift -Windridge -Parry & Cole

Three of the defenders Sergeant Joseph Windridge (the sergeant with the muscles in the film Zulu) ,Private Samuel Parry and Private Robert Cole were all buried in Witton Cemetery in Birmingham in unmarked graves .In November 2015 the three heroes were given memorials close to their grave areas .

Witton also contains alot of commenwealth war graves 

Bolt Action -Australians v Japanese

Managed to get a game in at Sheffield Wargames Solciety last night , we played Bolt Action ( there were 3 boltaction games going on as well as another 4 games )We played Australians v Japanese ,the game started well for the Aussies but those Japanese ignoring morale pressed home and the men from down under were soon suffering when we called a stop to the game ,all those pin markers causing major issues . One or two things we dont like but overall a good game .

started off well

cowardly Japanese sniper

Heroic Aussie sniper

the light howitzer did nothing during the game and made a quick  withdrawal  

Banzai

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Flame throwers can be devastating 

the flamethrower almost wiped out an entire unit  on its own .

Graves of the Defenders of Rorkes Drift-John Manley

Private John Manley was originally buried in an unmarked grave in Nottingham but a campaign by his great grand daughter suported by the Die Hards re enactment group eventually got a memeorial marker on the  spot in the communal plot where he was buried .

Irish born Manley became a painter and decorator after the war

Lancashire Infantry Museum -Fulwood Barracks

With the connection to George Smith thought we would visit the barracks where he spent his final army days ,it is inside aworking barracks so you have to take I.D and check in at the gate house but well worth it a fascinating place full of all types of items fro Napoleonic Eagles to silcerware and weapons ,whilst we were there there was chat by Eric Morcombes driver and handyman ?. A must visit place .

Graves of the Rorkes Drift Defenders -George Ammunition Smith

Reverend George Smith the Padre at Rorkes Drift was praised for his part in the defence ,helping with the building and design of the defences and during the battle handing out inspiration and ammo earning him the nickname ammunition smith .He Served in many wars afterwards  but his final posting was to Fulwood Barracks in Preston ( our next stop),after retirement he stayed close to the barrack and is buried in Preston New Hall  Lane cemetery , a easy to find grave which is a light red in colour .

Graves of the Rorkes Drift defenders -Sergeant Frederick Milne

Visted another couple of Graves this weekend ,Frederick Augustus Milne's in Sourthern Cemetary Manchester ,fairly easy to find once we realised there were 2 H plots at different sides of the cemetery .Sadly when we found his grave the cross was broken down but we found it and put it back in place it not the greatest job but its there for now.Milne ( or Millne) was with the Royal East Kents ( Buffs ) when assigned to help chard build the crossing at Rorkes Drift and volunteered to be a forlorn hope at the crossing and was mentioned in despatches by Chard.

Southern also has a few commonwelth wargraves with a lovely area for rrememberence