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I know that some of you have an interest in this spot and the battle that took place there. I found this article about a 74 year old former British soldier who worked at the site very sad.
Rorke’s Drift guide dies after attack
A British expert on the Anglo-Zulu War who spent almost 20 years as a tour guide in South Africa has died of injuries sustained in an attack by robbers at his home beside the battlefields.
Robert Gerrard trained under David Rattray, the most celebrated historical storyteller in the region and a friend of the Prince of Wales, and was the resident expert at Isandlwana Lodge in KwaZulu-Natal.
Both men met the same fate: in 2007 Mr Rattray was shot dead by intruders at his lodge, Fugitive’s Drift, where he had been visited by the Prince of Wales and Prince Harry in 1997, after Princess Diana’s death. In February Mr Gerrard, a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, was tortured by men who lay in wait at his cottage at Isandlwana Lodge.
He died last week, aged 74, following complications from his injuries, which included brain damage, a shattered pelvis and severe burns.
Sally Gerrard Fox, his sister, said that doctors found lesions on his brain which they attributed to the assault and he is thought to have suffered a stroke, a collapsed lung and pneumonia, although a post-mortem examination is yet to be completed. No one has been arrested in connection with the attack.
“He was an incredibly fit and determined man until this,” Mrs Fox said. “He would be out striding the mountainside on tours every day. But he just wasn’t getting better, he was forcing himself to walk again but it was clear that the attack sounded the end of his career.”
Mr Gerrard was attacked after returning to his cottage from a dinner with guests at the lodge.
“As he unlocked the door he saw one guy and punched him on the nose but didn’t realise that there was another one behind him with a gun,” Mrs Fox said. “They beat the living hell out of him, smashed his head into the floor, tied him up, poured boiling water over him, fractured his pelvis in seven places. Afterwards he was shattered not only that this had happened but the brutality behind what happened, the lack of clear reason for it.”
The thieves stole two handguns, two rifles and credit cards and broke his finger to steal a signet ring.
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