Zulu hero very different from screen portrayal
ONE of the biggest British box office blockbusters of the 1960s silver screen was Zulu. And central to the story was the reallife character of Henry Hook VC, who died on March 12, 1905.
From Churcham in Gloucestershire, this agricultural labourer won the highest award for bravery at the Battle of Rorke’s Drift in Natal, South Africa in 1879.
Private Hook, then 28, was a hospital cook who had the misfortune to find himself one of 150 British soldiers, most from the 24th Regiment of Foot (later the South Wales Borderers) facing a hostile army of 4,500 Zulus.
Although the fact the British had rifles and the Zulus didn’t should be borne in mind.
When the battle began, Hook was in the hospital hut.
Isolated from the rest of his countrymen, Hook had to defend eight patients against continuous onslaught.
Despite a wound to the head, Hook saved those in his care and returned home a hero.
On retirement from the Army, Hook worked for 23 years as a doorman at the British Museum.
Suffering ill health he returned to Gloucester and lived at 2 Osborn Villas, Roseberry Avenue.
When he died from tuberculosis at the age of 54, tens of thousands of local people lined the route from Gloucester to Churcham, where Henry Hook is buried in the village churchyard.
Zulu, which starred Michael Caine and Stanley Baker, was a controversial movie in a number of ways.
It was filmed in South Africa when the apartheid regime was in power.
White actors were warned that to fraternise with their black counterparts was illegal.
The 700 Zulu extras employed were not allowed to be paid as much as other members of the cast, although the director Cy Endfield compensated them with gifts of cattle.
And a last indignity was that only whites were allowed to the premiere of the film in South Africa.
Back in Britain the portrayal by actor James Booth of Gloucestershire’s local hero as a drunken malingerer who became a reluctant hero was heavily criticised by his family descendants and the regiment of which he had been a part.
Perhaps because Booth’s West Country accent wasn’t up to snuff, Henry Hook was also portrayed as a Cockney.
Historians, the Army and Hook’s family pointed out that in real life the man was teetotal and a Methodist lay preacher who had been awarded good conduct pay for being a model soldier shortly before the battle that led to him being awarded the Victoria Cross.
A three-year campaign was started to raise funds for a memorial at Private Hook’s grave, which had fallen into disrepair.
Upon completion the previously illegible inscription was unveiled.
It reads: “If our time is come let us die manfully for our brethren’s sake, and not have a cause for reproach against our glory.”