Bugle Boy John Dunn
A Coy, 1st Battalion, Dublin Fusiliers
The first person wounded at the November 1899
battle of Colenso
was young John Dunn, a 14-year-old bugle boy
who had joined the
Dublin Fusiliers at Aldershot. He had been
about to blow a bugle
call when wounded.
He was upset to discover that ambulance bearers
had wisely thrown
his bugle into the Tugela River!
Dunn was later introduced to Queen Victoria
as a 'Hero of Colenso'.
Her Majesty asked him where he had been wounded.
"In the right
arm and in the chest", the lad cheerfully
replied.
Her Majesty presented him with a replacement
bugle.
Trumpeter boy Shurlock of the 5th Lancers
was said to have shot
dead three Boers with his revolver at the
earlier battle of Elandslaagte
in October 1899. Stories like this proved
popular with the British media.
Most of the early battles were disastrous.
Reports of selfless courage or
reckless rescues helped distract public reaction
from the sting of defeat.
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A dramatic image of Trumpeter Boy
Shurlock's exploit. Detail from a mono-
chrome print of Caton Woodville's paint-
ing A Chip off the Old Block: Charge of
C Squadron 5th Lancers at Elandslaagte.
From the Spink Catalogue "The Anglo-Boer War
Anniversary 1899-1999, London, 21 October 1999.
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A British drummer boy writes to his
mother.
The use of youngsters as drummers, buglers
and trumpeters in the British
Army had long military traditions, but was
out of place in the 'modern' wars
of the end of the 19th Century.
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