Allan Wilson (1856 – 4 December 1893) was an officer in the Victoria Volunteers. He is best known for his leadership of the Shangani Patrol in the

First Matabele War The First Matabele War was fought between 1893 and 1894 in modern-day Zimbabwe. It pitted the British South Africa Company against the Ndebele (Matabele) Kingdom. Lobengula, king of the Ndebele, had tried to avoid outright war with the company ...

. His death fighting overwhelming odds made him a national hero in Britain and

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

Early life

Wilson was born in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. Upon completion of his apprenticeship at a Fochabers bank, he went to the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when i ...

and joined the

Cape Mounted Rifles The Cape Mounted Riflemen were South African military units. There were two separate successive regiments of that name. To distinguish them, some military historians describe the first as the "imperial" Cape Mounted Riflemen (originally the ' ...

. Wilson served as a Trooper in the Frontier Armed & Mounted Police during the Gaika-Galeka Campaign from 1877 to 1878 and in the Morosi Campaign of 1879. He was awarded the South Africa Medal with clasps 1877-8-9. He transferred to the

and was promoted to Sergeant. After taking his discharge he became a trader and gold prospector, and he earned a commission in the Basuto Police. Later he joined the Bechuanaland Exploration Company as Chief Inspector and was sent as their representative to Fort Victoria (now Masvingo) in

Matabeleland Matabeleland is a region located in southwestern Zimbabwe that is divided into three provinces: Matabeleland North, Bulawayo, and Matabeleland South. These provinces are in the west and south-west of Zimbabwe, between the Limpopo and Zambezi r ...

, serving as the senior officer in the Victoria Volunteers, reaching the rank of major.

Shangani Patrol

When the

broke out, Wilson was given command of the Victoria Column and appointed the rank of major. He led the Shangani Patrol in search of King Lobengula and, on 4 December 1893, he and 33 of his men were cut off from the main column and killed by the

Ndebele Ndebele may refer to: *Southern Ndebele people, located in South Africa *Northern Ndebele people, located in Zimbabwe and Botswana Languages *Southern Ndebele language, the language of the South Ndebele *Northern Ndebele language, the language o ...

warriors. In desperation and only hours before his defeat, Wilson sent Frederick Russell Burnham and two other scouts to seek reinforcements from the main column commanded by Major Patrick Forbes. The battle raging there was just as intense and there was no hope of anyone reaching Wilson in time. The incident achieved a lasting, prominent place in

n colonial history and is considered to be roughly the British equivalent to Custer's Last Stand.Gann, Lewis H (1965). ''A history of Southern Rhodesia; early days to 1934'' (First ed.). London: Chatto & Windus, p.118. Wilson is buried, along with most of his patrol and with

Cecil Rhodes Cecil John Rhodes (5 July 1853 – 26 March 1902) was a British mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes and his Br ...

, in

Matabo Hills The Matobo National Park forms the core of the Matobo or Matopos Hills, an area of granite kopjes and wooded valleys commencing some south of Bulawayo, southern Zimbabwe. The hills were formed over 2 billion years ago with granite being forced t ...

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

. He was considered a national hero and one of the founding fathers of

. The date of his death was a Rhodesian national holiday.

''Wilson's Last Stand''

A patriotic play by Augustus Harris called ''Cheer, Boys, Cheer!'' was performed in London's Drury Lane theatre in 1895, running for 177 performances.Freeman, Nicholas, ''1895: Drama, Disaster and Disgrace in Late Victorian Britain'', Edinburgh University Press, 2011, p.185. Its climax was "Wilson's Last Stand", a reenactment of Wilson's death. In the play, based on some embellished facts, it is said that in the killing of Wilson and his thirty-one men, Lobengula lost 80 of his royal guard and another 500 Ndebele warriors. Wilson was the last to fall and the wounded men of the Shangani Patrol loaded rifles and passed them to him during the final stages of the defence. When their ammunition ran out, the remaining men of the Patrol are said to have risen and sung " God Save the Queen". Once both of Wilson’s arms were broken and he could no longer shoot, he stepped from behind a barricade of dead horses, walked toward the Ndebele, and was stabbed with a spear by a young warrior. A rescue party, led by "a plucky girl", arrived just too late. The Last Stand was reenacted once more at the 1899

Greater Britain Exhibition The Greater Britain Exhibition was a colonial exhibition held at Earls Court in 1899 and opened by Prince George, Duke of Cambridge. on 8 May 1899. Exhibits Exhibits included a mineral exhibition from Victoria colony, a 120m cyclorama of the '' ...

in London, which featured a play called ''Savage South Africa'', described as "A Vivid, Realistic and Picturesque Representation of Life in the Wilds of Africa", in which scenes from the Matabele wars were re-created. A film called '' Major Wilson’s Last Stand'', based on the play, was produced in 1899. Robert Baden-Powell in his ''

Scouting for Boys ''Scouting for Boys: A handbook for instruction in good citizenship'' is a book on Boy Scout training, published in various editions since 1908. Early editions were written and illustrated by Robert Baden-Powell with later editions being extensi ...

'' advised scoutmasters to put on patriotic plays, giving "Wilson's Last Stand" as one of the suitable subjects.Robert H. MacDonald, The Language of Empire: Myths and Metaphors of Popular Imperialism, 1880-1918, Manchester University Press, 1994, p.92. A docudrama by David Millin, '' Shangani Patrol'', was released in 1970. The film was based on the book ''A Time To Die'' (1968) by Robert Cary, and was made on location by RPM Film Studios. It stars Brian O'Shaughnessy as Major Allan Wilson and co-stars

Will Hutchins Will Hutchins (born Marshall Lowell Hutchason; May 5, 1930) is an American actor most noted for playing the lead role of the young lawyer Tom Brewster, in the Western (genre), Western television series ''Sugarfoot'', which aired on American B ...

as Fred Burnham.

References

Literature

*''History of Rhodesia'', by Howard Hensman (1900) -- the full-text of the book can be found online for fre
PDF
*''Scouting on Two Continents,'' by Major Frederick Russell Burnham, D.S.O., Autobiography. LC call number: DT775 .B8 1926. (1926) {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Allan Members of the Pioneer Column 1856 births 1893 deaths British colonial army officers British colonial police officers British military personnel killed in action British military personnel of the First Boer War British people of the Anglo-Zulu War People from Ross and Cromarty People of the First Matabele War