Born circa 1831, the son of Ilderton Weatherley, Esq., and grandson of John Weatherley, of Willington House, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Lady Poulet, of Hinton St. George, Somerset, wrote to Lord Cardigan seeking his help in obtaining a commission for him and this he passed on to the Commander-in-Chief.
In Weatherley's own letter supporting his petition he said that he
"trusted the Commander-in-Chief would overlook the fact that he was a little over the age at which Gentlemen are usually appointed to the cavalry.
My age is 24. I have been four years in the Military School at Dresden, have since served as a Lieutenant in the Austrian cavalry and I have now a Company of the 1st Tower Hamlets Militia, stationed at Hackney.
I would add that I speak French, German and Italian, and my only motive for entering the British Army is an ardent love of the Service."
He had been a Captain in the Tower Hamlets Militia since the 7th of April 1854.
Cornet in the 4th Light Dragoons: 30th of March 1855.
Lieutenant: 26th of June 1855.
Lieutenant in the 6th Dragoon Guards: 5th of June 1857.
Appointed Adjutant: 6th of August 1858.
Lieutenant in the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons: 28th of January 1862.
Captain: 28th of June 1862.
Retired, by the sale of his commission, on the 6th of February 1868.
After leaving the Army he lived at Brighton, where he accepted the command of the 1st Sussex Volunteer Artillery, a position he filled from the 31st of March 1875 to the 25th of September 1877.
At the end of the same year he went to South Africa, where he took up residence in Pretoria.
Extract fromThe Washing of the Spears" by Donald R. Morris:
"A Canadian who was farming and gold mining in the Transvaal brought down 61 men of his Border Horse.
After serving as a young man in the Austrian cavalry, he had obtained a commission in the 4th Light Dragoons, and had charged with the Light Brigade at Balaclava [sic].
Exchanging into the 6th Dragoon Guards he had fought in the Sepoy Rebellion and had been a close friend of Bartle Frere whilst in India. Under something of a cloud after a regimental tiff he finally sold out and acquired property near Lyndenburg.
He had been on both expeditions against Sekukuni and had raised the Border Horse as Lancers for the second one.
He had just divorced his wife, and both his sons, one a boy of fourteen, was serving in his unit.
He was killed in the action at InHlobane Mountain on the 28th of March 1879.
Under the main command of Sir Evlyn Wood, the Border Horse, composed mainly of English settlers from the Transvaal, formed part of a column ordered to climb to the summit in order to capture a large herd of cattle known to be there, in spite of the fact that a large force of Zulus was known to be heading that way.
The men had not followed Weatherley for such a risky business and showed great reluctance to move on several occasions.
Finally reaching the summit, the force found itself confronted with a Zulu impi, known later to consist of some 22,000 men. Complete chaos reigned and to quote again from the "Washing of the Spears
"... Weatherley, with his Border Horse, had but barely descended from the terrace, when they discovered the main impi half a mile away. The van was far past them, pushing them against the mountain, and there was no escape to the south.
They wheeled, and rode back to ItKekha Nek, but found their way blocked by the flank column that had broken away from the main impi before. More Zulus were pouring down the trail and with the 83 men they had could not hope to regain the summit. (With Colonel Weatherley's Border Horse were "C" Troop of the Frontier Light Horse.)
They dressed their lines and charged up the Nek in a vain attempt to cut their way out, but the InGohamakhosi Regiment stood up to the charge and stopped it in its tracks.
The line dissolved into a great series of swirling fights, savage to a degree, the Zulus closing in on all sides and dragging the men down. Four troopers of the Frontier Horse and eight of the Border Horse broke out and escaped to the north, but six died.
Weatherley got through and then turned back to find his fourteen-year old son, taking with him a trooper, on whose horse he told the boy to leave. The lad refused to leave his father, so Weatherley took him up on his own crupper, putting his arm around him and slashing away with his sword at the encircling foe, the two died together...
Two officers of the Frontier Horse were also killed at the same time and the remaining two, including Captain Barton, who commanded the troop, were later killed by Zulus who had followed them...
Extract from theArmy and Navy Gazette, 28th of June 1879:
"A correspondent pays the following just tribute to the memory of Colonel Weatherley.
'We have just received the deplorable news of the irreparable loss of the gallant and brave founder of our Corps (the Border Horse) and his son, Rupert.
The flags are flying at half-mast and we have gone into deep mourning for all our comrades who met their fate with their brave leader — as good a soldier — and kind-hearted a Christian, who ever faced an enemy.
In one account of the action it is related how the Zulus beat the horsemen by springing on to the riders and assegaing them. Had those riders only been furnished with a brace of pistols — ordinary pattern — it would never have happened, In the action five officers and forty men lost their lives...
The Border Horse formed part of No 5 Column under Colonel H. Lowlands, V.C. C.B.
His sons were named Cedilla Poulet Mountjoy and Frederick Rupert, the first-named being a Lieutenant and the other a Sub-Lieutenant. It was the latter who was killed with his father.
There was also a daughter (name unknown) in the family.
The youngest son, Frederick Alfred Rupert, born on the 20th of September 1864, was baptised by the Revd. C.B. Hamilton, B.A., Chaplain, at St. John's Church, Mhow, India, on the 23rd of October 1864, the son of Frederick Augustus Weatherley, Captain, 6th Dragns. and his wife, Marie Louise,.
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His will, made at Brighton on the 12th of August 1875 and proved on the 18th of September 1879, shows that his wife was to become the legal guardian of his children and an unspecified sum of money (said to come from some investments in a colliery) was left to her.
His eldest son, Cecil P.J. was born at Meerut, India, on the 8th of March 1860 (another source states this was the 19th of April 1860) and after the Zulu campaign served in the British Army, enlisting at the Regimental Depot of the Middlesex Regiment at Hounslow as No. 574 on the 19th of January 1883.
His age on attestation was given as 22 years 9 months. The regiment was in Guernsey at this time. Promoted to Corporal on the 25th of April 1883, and to Sergeant on the 2nd of October 1883, before being commissioned as a Lieutenant (from Sergeant) in the 1st Bn. of the Staffordshire Regiment on the 2nd of July 1884 after serving 1 year 164 days "in the rank's."
On the 29th of August 1884 he left to join his new regiment in Egypt, (it previously having been stationed in Malta) He was appointed Adjutant of the regiment from the 17th of April 1889 until the expiry of his term as such on the 10th of February 1891.
On the 5th of November 1888 he had passed the examination for promotion to Captain, but resigned his commission on the 11th of February 1891, the regiment then being in Gibraltar. (Was this perhaps because he did not get further promotion)
His "Officer's Services" papers show that he was "single", was fluent in the French and German languages and that his next-of-kin was shown as (firstly) Mr. Madyn, "Collingwood". Torquay, Devon, and secondly (at some later date) as "Major S. Weatherley, Taswell Road, Southampton." Also confirmed are his medal entitlements. Hart's "Army List" shows him as; South African War, 1879. Served in the Border Horse Volunteers during the Zulu campaign, battles of InHlobane and Kambula, and the storming and capture of Sekukuni's stronghold.
He served with the Mounted Infantry during the Soudan Expedition and was awarded the Egyptian medal with clasps for The Nile 1884-85 and Kirbekan with them. Also awarded the Khedive's Star, dated 1884-86... (with the 1st Bn. Staffs.)
Campaign service
Captain Weatherley served with the 4th Light Dragoons in the Crimea from the 13th of August 1855 and was present at the battle of the Tchernya and the Siege and fall of Sebastopol. He afterwards accompanied the Light Cavalry Brigade to Eupatoria and was present during the whole of the campaign there under General D'Allonville. (Medal and Clasp and the Turkish Medal.)
Served with the 6th Dragoon Guards in the Indian Mutiny campaign of 1858-59, including the whole of the operations in Rohilcund, with the ambuscade at Kukrowlie and the taking of Bareilly.
He was Adjutant of the Wing of the Carabineers at the attack and bombardment of the Shahehanapore, defeat of the rebels and relief of the garrison by the Moultrie; also the capture of the fort at Reinai and the pursuit of the sepoys; destruction of the fort at Mohumdee and the attack on and taking of Shabad.
Served during the Trans-Gogra campaign, including the affair near Chundal and the fort at Medjida, the attack on Bankee, and with the pursuit of the rebels to the Raptee. (Medal and Clasp for Delhi.) Served in the Zulu War of 1879. (Medal and Clasp.)
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasp for Sebastopol, the Mutiny Medal with clasp for Delhi, the Zulu War Medal with clasp for 1879 and the Turkish Medal,
Lieutenant W.G. Blake, a subaltern in the 6th D.G. refers to him (amongst others) in one of his letters home and sent during the Mutiny campaign:
"Weatherly is not a bad kind of fellow but rather too patronising in his (illegible) connections with nobility and his talk is constantly about them. He is married to a very flashy little woman who he informs you has a brother in the Guards and whose father he represents as a great swell, but I have not been able to ascertain his name. He takes her about on the march with him. She rides very well, carries a revolver and uses her whip on the natives and though very diminutive is very masculine."
(On the 5th of January 1857, he had married, at Cranbourne, near Winkfield, Berkshire, Maria Louise, the daughter of C.C. Blantyre, Esq., of Whitehall Gardens, London.)
Not recorded by Lummis and Wynn.
Extract from a book by T.V. Bulpin,Lost Trails of the Transvaal, with reference to the annexation of the Transvaal by the British:
"Apart from the prospectors there was another person trying his luck during the time of the British annexation, the Gunn of Gunn.
Since his release from jail he had been living on his wits in Pretoria, writing occasionally for "De Volksten" and relieving its editor, J.F. Celliers, when he fell sick and getting the reputation of not being simply just a plausible character, but an active dissentient with Shepstone's administration.
The Gunn had originally hoped to get himself into some comfortable position with the British administration.
When this was denied him he started to intrigue against it and with the growing unpopularity of Shepstone and the general atmosphere of suspicion and rumour in Pretoria it was easy to stir up some trouble.
The Gunn certainly gave Shepstone a severe shock. At the beginning of June he presented the Government with a petition signed by 3,823 persons, requesting that Shepstone be dismissed as incompetent and suggesting that a friend of Gunn, named as Colonel Weatherley, be appointed in his place. Gunn no doubt hoped that Colonel Weatherley would then reward him with some preferment.
This petition certainly shook the Government.
Shepstone examined it with consternation and quickly observed a curious thing. The petition was remarkably clean for a documentation which had received so much handling, and the signatures looked remarkably alike.
Enquiries soon confirmed that the majority of the signatures were of non-existent persons. The Gunn and an associate named Paul Perrin were immediately arrested.
Charged with fraud and forgery of other persons's signatures, only sixteen of the signatures could be proved genuine, and a long and acrimonious trial commenced, for Shepstone had been seriously enraged.
Nothing definite ever resulted from the affair.
The trial might have eventually have convicted Gunn of a serious forgery of 3,807 signatures, but it was also revealing the general unpopularity of Shepstone. The affair was allowed to die out into a confusion of threats and abuse.
The Gunn, who seemed to thrive on trouble, became involved at the end of 1878 in the first really sensational Transvaal divorce action. Colonel Weatherley took his blond wife, Maria, to court and their mutual friend, Gunn, as the co-respondent. Weatherley won his case.
(Sir Theopolous Shepston. (1817-1893) South African statesman. — After many years of serving in Government posts relating to native affairs he was, in January of 1877, sent to the Transvaal with a small personal staff and twenty-five policemen and on the 28th of April declared it to be British territory and he was appointed the first Administrator of the new province.
Later, as the subject of considerable criticism in regard to many of his actions, he relinquished the Administration-ship in 1879 and retired from public life in 1888.)
Extract fromThe Armed Forces of South Africa, by G. Tylden:
"Border Horse — Raised and commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Weatherley, an ex-Imperial officer, in the Transvaal War of 1879. The Corps, 61 strong, lost its commanding officer and 38 of all ranks killed and one wounded at Hlobane on the 28th of March 1879, Served under Major Dennison (the only officer to escape the Hlobane Mountain action in 1879) at Kambulaand in the Sekukni action.
There is a Regimental colour in the Pretoria Museum which it is presumed belonged to this unit: the ground is light cream, with maroon fringe and tassels. The centre is an olive wreath surrounding a lion's head, with the motto "Be viligant" and the honours,"Hlobabe, Kambuala and Seecoeni." Never above squadron strength...
Extract fromThe Zulu War, 1879, by Alan Lloyd:
"Butler's first thought in sighting the impi was for Weatherley. He had just despatched Barton with orders that would place the Border Horse in the open against the south face of the Hlobane — practically in the path of 20,000 Zulus.
Bawling to two of his horsemen, he sent them after Barton to amend the message. The Border Horse, he now instructed, should retire "to the right of the mountain." Since they would be returning west, this would mean turning left at the end of the descent, skirting the eastern tip of Hlobane, and making for Kambula along the north side of the mountain, thus screened from the impi.
Unfortunately, the phrasing of the order was ambiguous, Barton taking it to mean a right turn at the foot of the cliff, assumed that the order was a confirmation of the first. (Assuming, because Buller had despatched his second-in-command, Captain Robert Barton of the Coldstream Guards, to tell Weatherley that there was no point in continuing, but that he should return to Kambula by the route to the south of the mountain.)
In fact, exactly what Weatherley had been doing on his own initiative. Only after Barton's departure had the impi been seen. Reaching Weatherley at the bottom of the trail, Barton relayed the instructions as he saw them. The Border Horse, now joined by the troop of Frontier Horse which Barton had picked up on his way, duly turned along the south wall and immediately found themselves trapped by the main body of the impi, whose flanks faced them across the plain to the south as well.
The only course was to run for the eastern tip as Butler had intended and escape to the north. But they were too late. The detached right wing of the impi had already cut in behind them. There were 60 Border Horse, 20 Frontier Horse, and their officers. Spurring their mounts, they charged for the eastern tip in a desperate bid to break out to the north. The Zulu right horn faced them unflinchingly, and the charge was smothered by the stabbing warriors, Ten riders broke through, The rest, including Barton, Weatherley and Weatherley's son, were massacred...
The soldier author of "The Zulu Campaign" provided an illuminating Victorian vignette of the boy and his father in their agony — When all save honour seemed lost (wrote Major Ashe) Weatherley had placed his beloved son on his best horse and, kissing him on the forehead, then commended him to another Father's care, and implored him to overtake the nearest group of the Border Horse, which at that time seemed to be cutting its way out. The boy clung to his father and begged to be allowed to stay by his side and share in his life, or death.
The contrast was characteristic — the man a bearded bronzed and hardy sabreur; with a father's tears upon his cheeks, while the blue-eyed and fair-haired lad with so much of the beauty of a girl in his appearance, was calmly and with a smile of delight loading his father's carbine... When the two noble hearts were last seen, the father, wounded to death with cruel assegais, was clasping the boy's hand with his left, while his right cut down the brawny savages who came to despoil him of his charge...
When living in Natal in 1966 an English artist named William Race became very interested in Zulu history and explored many of the sites that were associated with the war of 1879. This led, some ten years later, to a chance meeting with some of the Zulu notables of the region and an invitation to produce some portraits of the Zulu warrior heroes.
Today (1985) there are some twenty paintings on display in various museums in Natal, in Zululand and elsewhere. These include portraits of the British commanders of the time and a number of large dramatic battle-scenes.
One of the latter shows the death of Colonel Weatherley and his son at Hlobane Mountain, and is now (1985) on display at the Combined Services Museum in the Wish Tower at Eastbourne, Sussex, and there is a portrait of Weatherley himself in the Museum of Dundee Town, Natal.
Enquiry of Mr. Race as to whether there was any local knowledge of Weatherley's body being buried at or near the scene of his death, the response was that, "Neither Weatherley nor any of his men were buried after the fighting on Hlobane Mountain, their bones being scattered over the hills."
However, in a book entitledA Narrative of the Field Operations, it states:
"At this halting place, near Inhlobane Mountain, a fort was constructed which was called Fort Piet Uys, and here the column remained until the 30th of August, while a party of mounted men patrolled the track towards the Dumbie Mountain and discovered and buried the remains of many of those who had fallen in the action of the 28th of March."
So, Weatherley and his son may have been among these.