Robert Gerrard: Anglo-Zulu War historian, tour guide
1942-2016
ROBERT Gerrard, who has died in Ladysmith in KwaZulu-Natal at the age of 74, was a British army officer and military historian who specialised in the Anglo-Zulu War and was for 20 years a tour guide at one of South Africa’s most famous battle sites, Isandlwana.
He died seven months after being badly assaulted in his cottage at Isandlwana Lodge, which overlooked the hillside battlefield where the army of Zulu king Cetshwayo almost wiped out part of the central column of a British force sent to invade Zululand in 1879.
Gerrard worked closely for several years with the doyen of South African military tour guides in KwaZulu-Natal, David Rattray, who was murdered at his home nearby in 2007.
Gerrard was born in Durban on May 18 1942. He grew up in England and attended Ampleforth College in Yorkshire.
His great-great-grandfather, Sir John Robinson, was the first prime minister of the British colony of Natal and founder of the Natal Mercury newspaper, which was run by the family for four generations.
After school Gerrard served with the British army in Kenya, Malaysia, Thailand and Borneo before moving to South Africa in 1969.
He worked as a commodity broker for a Japanese company in Johannesburg.
In the ’90s, when the commodities business turned sour, he was introduced to Rattray, who was looking for an assistant. They immediately took to one another and Gerrard joined him as a tour guide at the Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift battlefields.
The mission station at Rorke’s Drift was being held by a handful of British soldiers on January 22 1879 when it was attacked by about 4 000 Zulus immediately after their victory at Isandlwana.
After a battle of 12 hours, the Zulus were repulsed.
Gerrard became an acknowledged expert on the battles of the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 and Anglo-Boer wars of 1881 and 1899-1902, which he lectured on regularly in Britain and the US.
He was made a Fellow of The Royal Geographical Society in 1998.
The following year he became the resident historian at Isandlwana Lodge.
While there, Gerrard spent years researching the history of the people involved in the battles of Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift, speaking wherever possible to their descendants and hearing oral acmile counts of the battle, which had been passed down through generations.
He worked with other historians uncovering new information and learning about the characters involved and, as he put it, “how that history has affected our modern society; what we can learn from the mistakes; the bravery and stupidity and the repercussions of those events”.
He realised there was a dearth of written information about the war from a Zulu perspective. He put this material together in a book called People of the Heavens, which covered the background, battles of the AngloZulu War and the aftermath.
It was published about 10 years ago and he regularly updated it.
Gerrard was something of a legend among visitors to the famous battle sites, who included former US president Jimmy Carter and his family.
He was regarded as a huge drawcard. He had “one of those voices that you never got tired of hearing”, wrote one visitor.
He is survived by two sons. — Chris Barron
Gerrard joined Rattray as a tour guide at Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift