The Defence of Rorke's Drift The Defence of Rorke's Drift The Defence of Rorke's Drift is an 1880 painting by Elizabeth Thompson, Lady Butler depicting the 1879 Battle of Rorke's Drift which took place during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1877 to 1879. The battle and the men who fought in it were made famous in the 1964 film "Zulu". The Battle of Rorke's Drift caused a wave of patriotic fever in the United Kingdom and the surviving participants, especially the officers, were feted on their return in October 1879, first going to Windsor Castle to meet Queen Victoria before posing for Elizabeth Thompson at Portsmouth
Ntshingwayo Khoza Ntshingwayo Khoza Ntshingwayo kaMahole of the Khoza (c. 1809 – 21 July 1883) was the commanding general ("inDuna") of King Cetshwayo's Zulu Army during the first Anglo-Zulu War. He became known as Ntshingwayo kaMahole after being taken into foster care by Mahole of the Xhosa. Ntshingwayo was given overall field command of the Zulu impi against the Centre Column of the first British invasion of Zululand in the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. He was given conflicting orders. Publicly, he was told to meet the British Army's Centre Column in open battle "and eat them up" [kill them], but privately he