Fact Sheet No. B7
The Colours of the 24th Regiment during the Zulu War

1st Battalion 24th Regiment
Events surrounding the 1866 Colours of 1st Battalion during the Zulu campaign were as follows:
When the advance was made to the Buffalo River, the Regimental Colour was left at Helpmakaar with G Company. On 22nd January 1879, the Queen's Colour was at Isandhlwana and the Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Pulleine, ordered Lieutenants Melvill (Adjutant) and Coghill to save the Colour. Both officers lost their lives trying to save this Colour from the Zulus. (Alphonse de Neuville's famous painting of the 'Saving of the Colour' incorrectly shows the Regimental Colour). On 4th February 1879, Queen's Colour was found in the Buffalo River and restored to the 1st Battalion.
The Queen's Colour was taken and presented to HM Queen Victoria at Osborne House on 28th July 1880, where she attached the Wreath of Immortelles to the pike. On 15th December 1880 a letter was received via Army Headquarters at Horse Guards from HM Queen Victoria granting that a silver wreath was to be borne on the Queen's Colour pike of both battalions for ever-more.
After the presentation of new Colours to the 1st Battalion in Hong Kong in 1933, the Isandhlwana Queen's Colour and the Helpmakaar Regimental Colour were laid up in Brecon Cathedral on Easter Day, 1st April 1934, where they are today.

2nd Battalion 24th Regiment
The 1859 Colours were with the 2nd Battalion during the 1878 Kaffir Wars in South Africa and then later in the year went with the Battalion to Natal where they formed part of the No. 3 Column, along with the 1st Battalion. Unlike the 1st Battalion they had both Colours with them when the column advanced across the Buffalo River to Isandhlwana. When the column advanced on reconnaissance with Lord Chelmsford, the 2nd Battalion Colours were left behind in the camp and were lost on 22nd January 1879 at the Battle of Isandhlwana. All that were found was a pike, a crown and Colour case (it cannot be assumed that these pieces related to the same Colour). The pike was found in a kraal two miles from Isandhlwana on the 21st May 1879. The crown was found by a wood cutting party in a farmhouse on the Natal side of the buffalo, four miles from Rorke's Drift in March 1879 and the case was found about 1200 yards from the camp in a bed of the stream.
The surviving pike and crown were trooped at the presentation of new Colours in Gibraltar in August 1880. The relics were subsequently presented to HM Queen Victoria by Major C J Bromhead on 15th March 1881 and were later placed in the Armoury at Windsor Castle. They remained there until 25th July 1923, when HM King George V returned them to the Regiment for safe-keeping. The relics were re-dedicated on Sunday 20th April 1924 and placed in the Regimental Chapel in Brecon Cathedral.

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