Orders, Decorations and Medals

The Important C.B. group of four awarded to Colonel W. A. Dunne, Assistant Commissary in charge of the stores at Rorke’s Drift, recommended for the Victoria Cross for his Gallant Services in the Defence

The Most Honourable Order of The Bath, C.B. (Military) breast badge in gold and enamels, hallmarked 18 carat, London 1868, complete with gold ribbon buckle; South Africa 1877-79, clasp, 1877-8-9 (Dep. Com. W. A. Dunne, Commissariat Dept.); Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, 2 clasps, Tel-El-Kebir, Suakin 1885 (A.C.Genl. W. A. Dunne, C. & T.S.); Khedive’s Star 1882, unnamed as issued, some light pitting to the Egypt Medal but otherwise very fine and better; together with the recipient’s 1897 pattern Infantry Officer’s sword, by Simpson & Co., Dublin, the steel hilt and etched blade both with V.R. cypher, complete with steel scabbard, this in good overall condition (5)

Walter Alphonsus Dunne, the third son of James Dunne of Dublin, was born in Cork on 10 February, 1853, and joined the Control Department (the forerunner of the Commissariat Department) as a Sub-Assistant Commissary (the equivalent of a Second Lieutenant) in April 1873. After six months at Woolwich, he was posted to Dublin where he remained for the next four years. In October 1877, he sailed for South Africa and soon found himself serving alongside the 1st Battalion, 24th Foot, in the 9th Cape Frontier War. In the summer of 1878 after serving with the force under Colonel Evelyn Wood in the Perie Bush, he was sent to the north eastern Transvaal to assist in operations against the Kaffir King Sekukuni and his disgruntled Pedi chiefdom. When that war fizzled out owing to supply difficulties, Dunne, now an Assistant Commissary Officer (Lieutenant), made a daring solo ride of a hundred miles over country ‘abandoned through fear of the Zulus’ to Helpmakaar, to take up employment as the Senior Commissary with No. 3 Column of the Zululand invasion force.

On 9 January, 1879, he moved ten miles up the road to establish a forward supply depot at the Mission Station at Rorke’s Drift and, commandeering the Reverend Otto Witt’s chapel as a storehouse, supervised the work of stocking it with 200 lb. mealie bags, wooden boxes of biscuit, crates of tinned beef, and wooden ammunition boxes containing 600 rounds apiece. He was assisted by Acting Assistant Commissary Officer James Dalton, Acting Storekeeper Louis Byrne, and Second Corporal Francis Atwood of the Army Service Corps, and was able to call on the manpower of three hundred natives of the Natal Contingent assigned to the A.S.C. for fatigue duty. ‘B’ Company of the 2nd Battalion, 24th Foot, under Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead, was detailed to remain behind and guard the stores when No. 3 Column moved out across the Buffalo River under the personal supervision of the C-in-C, Lord Chelmsford, on the 11th.

The early afternoon of 22 January found Dunne and ‘Gonny’ Bromhead idling under a tarpaulin which they had propped up to protect them from the sun whilst they smoked their pipes. No. 3 Column was in camp nine miles away at Isandhlwana, and although there had been some reports of prowling Zulus around the forward base camp there was no cause for alarm. Then, shortly after 3:00 pm Dunne and Bromhead noticed a group of natives in an excited state on the far side of the river. In an account of that fateful day, written by Dunne in 1891, he recalled: ‘Suddenly, we noticed at some distance across the river, a large number of mounted natives approaching, preceded by a lot of women and children driving oxen. We were going down to find out what they were, but had not gone many steps when we were called back by one of the men who said that a mounted orderly wished to see the officer in command. Turning back at once we met a mounted man in his shirt-sleeves riding hurriedly towards us. His first words were “the camp is taken by Zulus!”’

Bromhead despatched a runner to inform Lieutenant John Chard, the R.E. officer in charge of the ponts at the river crossing, whereupon another breathless messenger rode in bearing a note which had reached him by the combined efforts of four officers, stressing that the post was to be held at all costs and warning that a Zulu impi was on its way towards Rorke’s Drift. It was now, as Dunne put it, a choice of ‘Do or Die’. Dalton’s suggestion of fortifying the post by piling up mealie bags to form barricades, linking the store and hospital, was quickly agreed upon and, while Bromhead fell in the men, Dunne and Dalton traced out the lines of the ramparts on the ground. Dunne wrote of the preparations: ‘outposts were thrown out, tents struck, ammunition was served out, and the work of putting up the barricade was begun by all hands. Other preparations were also made: a water barrel was filled and brought inside, and several boxes of ammunition were opened and placed in convenient places. It was well for us that we had the help of 300 natives at this juncture, otherwise the work could not have been accomplished in time.’

‘In about two hours’, Dunne continues, ‘a wall breast high had been made nearly all round, taking in the hospital and store. When I went to look at the progress made at the former place, I saw that this was the weakest point, for there was nothing but a plank to close the opening at one part; but before anything could be done to strengthen it a shot was fired outside. Turning round, I saw one of the outposts running back, and at the same moment a single Zulu appeared, standing out against the sky on top of a high hill which rose up about 100 yards in [the] rear of the store. Immediately they heard the shot our 300 natives took up their assegais and made off towards Helpmakaar, followed by their officer! Chard, seeing that we could not now hold the original line, immediately had the space curtailed by drawing a row of biscuit boxes, two high, across the middle. This probably saved us later from destruction, for it afforded shelter for the men when they were obliged to retreat on the hospital being taken.’

‘Very soon the Zulus appeared round the foot of the hill in a black mass, coming on without a sound at a steady trot. The men on that side, without waiting for any word of command, opened fire on them at once at about 800 yards range and dropped many of the foremost, causing the remainder to swerve away to their left and thus round to the front of our position. Soon they were all round us, and all sides of the square became hotly engaged. The store, which had been loopholed, afforded shelter to some of the men, who were able to do great execution on that side; but the heaviest attack was made on the hospital, which was soon captured after a very stubborn resistance on the part of the few men defending it who were forced back by numbers, fighting all the time with their bayonets, Ptes. Williams, Hook, and R. and W. Jones, of the 24th, greatly distinguishing themselves in their efforts to save the sick. Those of the sick who were able to move escaped by running back to the second line of boxes; but some poor fellows were stabbed to death with assegais in their beds.’

With all surviving members of the garrison hemmed in behind the biscuit box wall at the eastern end of the entrenchment, the epic struggle, illuminated by the burning thatch of the hospital roof, reached its climax: ‘Several times the foremost Zulus rushed right up to the barricade, but were always driven back with heavy loss, many being stopped only by the bayonet. The men behaved with splendid coolness and bravery. It was a soldier’s battle - each man fighting for his own hand; and well did they avenge the slaughter of their comrades at Isandhlwana.’ In the next turn of events Dunne was to perform a prominent part, though characteristically his modest account fails to mention the danger to which he was exposed: ‘... the position was a desperate one and our chance of escape seemed slight indeed, so Chard decided to form a sort of redoubt of mealie bags, where a last stand could be made. We laboured at this till we dropped with exhaustion; but succeeded in building it up to about eight feet on the outside, and here the wounded were brought for protection. It was hard work, for the bags of mealies weighed 200 lbs. each’.

Dunne’s efforts in constructing the redoubt were later acknowledged by John Chard and subsequently formed the basis of the attempt to recognise his gallantry with the award of the Victoria Cross. Three days after the miraculous outcome of the Defence of Rorke’s Drift, Chard reported: ‘ ... Seeing the hospital burning, and the desperate attempts of the enemy to fire the roof of the stores, we converted two mealie-bag heaps into a sort of redoubt, which gave a second line of fire all round; Assistant-Commissary Dunne working hard at this, though much exposed, and rendering valuable assistance ...’ Seven months later the possible award of a V.C. to Dunne was still being discussed, and in response to a request made by Sir Edward Strickland, the Commissary General, for evidence to support bestowal, Brevet Major Chard wrote the following from Durban, on 20 August, 1879:

‘My dear Sir Edward,
I have very much pleasure in writing at your request the following short account of Mr Dunne’s services on the occasion of the attack on Rorke’s Drift 22-23 Jan 1879 - Mr Dunne from the first gave valuable assistance in superintending and working at our defences, and with Mr Byrne was greatly instrumental to forming the retrenchment of biscuit boxes which was in all probability the means of our successful defence, and that at a time when the firing in the distance being heard, there was every necessity for the work being completed as quickly as possible. At one time during the attack, and when the hospital was burning, it appeared as if the enemy would also succeed in setting fire to the Commissariat Store - and it became of the greatest importance to have some point to rally round in case they succeeded. It was then that we formed our inner defence of the two heaps of mealies in sacks - Mr Dunne worked hard at this. Eventually the little redoubt was completed; his height in addition to the fact of standing on the heaps which were high above our outer walls, causing him to be much exposed. The enemy’s fire was very heavy at the time, and in addition to any shots aimed at those working, from the usual Zulu fault of firing high, the place was one of particular exposure.
Believe me
Dear Sir Edward
Very faithfully yours
J.R.M. Chard’

Despite Chard’s testimony and the muted support of Chelmsford, the matter was finally decided by H.R.H. The Duke of Cambridge who, on 18 October declared, “We are giving the VC very freely I think, but probably Mr Dalton had as good a claim as the others who have got the Cross for Rorke’s Drift Defence. I don’t think there is a case for Mr Dunne.” Accordingly Dunne had to content himself with promotion to Deputy Commissary (London Gazette 21 March, 1879).

Following the Defence, Dunne was appointed Commissary of Supplies to Evelyn Wood’s Flying Column, which formed part of the force that ultimately brought King Cetewayo’s Zulu nation to its knees at Ulundi. On 2 September Dunne was in charge of a supply depot at St. Pauls when ‘a great event occurred ... no less than the arrival of Cetewayo, a prisoner under escort’. Dunne joined the throng anxious to catch a glimpse. ‘From what I had heard I expected to see an obese, ill looking savage, but on the contrary, he was a fine looking, intelligent man with good features’.

Deputy Commissary Dunne next returned to the north eastern Transvaal to attend to the unfinished business with Sekukuni and, in November, was present at the storming of his stronghold. Continuing in the Transvaal after the humbling of Sekukuni, Dunne was next caught up in the Anglo-Boer War, and was besieged at Potchefstroom where some 200 British troops encumbered by 48 women and children held out in a makeshift fort, occupying an area about the same size as a tennis court, against 1400 Boers for 96 days, until forced to surrender by sickness and starvation. Here he became a noted member of the garrison, not least because each Sunday he sat on the parapet and read out the Roman Catholic service to his co-religionists. The survivors of the siege eventually marched out of Potchefstroom with military honours and returned to Natal. By this time the rigours of constant campaigning had overtaken him and he was taken to Pietermaritzburg to recuperate. During his convalescence he met his future wife, the daughter of John Bird, the distinguished Natal administrator and historian.

Dunne returned to the U.K. in April 1882, thus concluding a record of service unique among Imperial officers in that he participated in every war fought in South Africa between 1877 and 1881. However, only five months after taking up his new posting at Aldershot, he was selected for service in the Egyptian Campaign, and was next present at Tel-el-Kebir as senior officer Commissariat and Transport on the Headquarters of the Cavalry Division. In 1885 he served in the Suakin Expedition and was present at the action at Hasheen against the Dervishes under Osman Digna. A string of staff appointments followed and, in 1888, while stationed in Mauritius, he transferred as a Lieutenant-Colonel into the Army Service Corps on the demise of the Commissariat Department. In 1896, he was created a Companion of the Bath and the following year promoted Colonel. He retired as Assistant Director Supplies and Transport at Gibraltar in February 1908. Sadly he was in poor health and breathed his last in Rome just five months later.