Rayjin

Excellent! William Adams was one of the five Buffalo Border Guard to escape the disaster at Isandhlwana, they reached Helpmakaar where:-

'The Defence of Helpmekaar by Graham Alexander'

Quartermaster D. MacPhail later wrote: -
Captain Essex who was in command, gave such a foolish order that it cleared a lot of us out and we left him to fight the Zulus himself

As darkness fell, five members of the Buffalo Border Guard mounted their horses and silently slipped away from the garrison in the gathering twilight

(The survivors of the Natal Carbineers and Newcastle Mounted Rifles had already left)

What with one son escaping Isandhlwana with him, his 16 year old son at Fort Pine, and (I think!) another son in the Buffalo Border Guard, maybe with Chelmsford Column, who can blame them for getting out of a poorly defended place after what they had just witnessed a couple of hours before.

Eying up the pheasant and partridge that come onto the allotment, keep thinking, one of them may have a slight accident one day and it wouldn't be right to let it go to waste :)

Received this morning, and it is excellent.

Getting old ain't that bad at the moment, just had my first son (born 9 days ago) at the age of 52, just rocking him to sleep right now as I'm writing this.

Enjoying feeding him and changing his nappies (except for when you think you've cleaned him up and about to put on the clean nappy ..................... and he pee's all over me! BOY! for a little fella, he can't half get some power behind it )

Ah well, off to put him down for a few hours and catch some sleep myself

Always read the blogs, can't write, just can't put words to paper, but I do love reading. I had about 2,500 books up until a year ago, but got shot of a load for lack of room, but the numbers seem to be creeping up again.

Look forward to all the blogs no matter what the subject.

Keep them coming Mervyn, I'm thinking of printing a few of these off to give mother an idea and see if she'll write down her experiences and memories of Plymouth during the war. I can remember a lot of what she has told me but it's not the same as hearing it in her own words.

You've got two faithful readers, my mother grew up in Plymouth and went through the blitz there. Her father sent her and her mother to relatives in Fowey, where they were strafed by a messershmidt returning from a raid while they were walking in a field. Her mother took them back to Plymouth as she said the bombing wasn't personally aimed at them, whereas the strafing was !!!

I've tried to get her to write everything down that she can remember, and about her early life, she starts, but then lets it slip over time. But I keep trying.

Keep them coming Mervyn.