Four Zulu War Correspondents & Artists The Personal Experiences of the Campaign by Prior, Fripp, Forbes and Norris-Newman

Personal experiences by the men who wrote and drew the news in Zululand, 1879



Following the successful reception of William Howard Russell's reporting of the Crimean War in 1856, the newspapers and periodicals of the world routinely sent special correspondents into the field with armies on campaign to witness and write reports for the eager readership 'at home'. Likewise, in a time when photography required bulky equipment and stationary subjects, the roving illustrator was also a common figure on campaign sketching all manner of scenes, from the commonplace to the momentous, which would be later engraved for publication. Many of these intrepid reporters and artists became notable figures in their own time. Predictably, when the decision was made to invade Zululand in 1879, the press corps of the day gravitated towards Lord Chelmsford's army. Some of these 'gentlemen of the press' in due course wrote books about the great events they had witnessed.. However, this book contains four accounts -written by Melton Prior, Archibald Forbes, Charles Fripp and Charles Norris- Newman-which recount what happened to them personally during that campaign. These texts have been taken from autobiographical works, a magazine article and extracted-in the case of Norris-Newman- from his book, 'With the British Army in Zululand'. Both Prior and Fripp were extremely competent artists and examples of their work concerning the scenes of the Zulu War accompanies these texts. Indeed, those experiences occasionally appear within those illustrations. This special Leonaur edition gathers together material which is rarely published and so is invaluable for students of the Anglo-Zulu War and those interested in the history of journalism.



Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.