Police abandon their post at Rorke’s Drift parade

AN ANNUAL parade held for a soldier awarded the Victoria Cross for his heroism during the Battle of Rorke’s Drift has been cancelled because police will not help to stop traffic.

John Fielding, who fought as Private John Williams, saved the lives of eight people when he knocked through partition walls in a hospital during fierce fighting with Zulu warriors in 1879.

For the past 26 years, a parade is held to commemorate the soldier’s bravery in his hometown of Llantarnam, Cwmbran, South Wales, before church memorial service.

However, the parade, which had been due to be held on Saturday, the 140th anniversary of the battle, has been cancelled after police said they could not be included in any traffic management plan.

Gwent Police’s Chief Supt Marc Budden said the public could be at risk if officers managing traffic for the parade were called away in an emergency.

The memorial service at the church in a will still take place. Tony Burnett, chairman of the Cwmbran and District ex-services Association, said cancelling the parade was an “insult” to veterans. He said: “Every year the road is closed for 30 minutes while the parade proceeds along it to the church, where the memorial service then takes place. This is an insult to Fielding and other veterans.”

Private Williams served in the 2nd Battalion, 24th Regiment of Foot.

He died aged 75 in 1932 from heart failure.