"It is often the policy of imperial powers to help with the control and defence of their possessions by raising local troops, and with war looming in Natal in the late 1870s authority was given to raise what would become the Natal Native Contingent (NNC), which it was hoped would help make up for lack of numbers of regular British troops. By the end of December 1878 three regiments had been raised with a total of seven companies of roughly a thousand native troops each. Plans were made to uniform and arm all these men, but widespread fears by white settlers over the arming of so many natives meant that initially only about one in ten were given a rifle (and literally a handful of cartridges), and the rest had to make do with their traditional weapons. Officers were to be European, but were very hard to find, so in general were of very poor quality. With only a few days of training, the NNC were sent with the British forces to invade Zululand, where their performance could politely be described as ‘mixed'. Badly lead and poorly armed, many recognised a bad situation when they saw it and ran when the Zulus approached, but others fared better, and some NNC remained as part of the British forces until the end of the war in 1879, after which their short existence was brought to an end.
Initial plans to uniform these men were rejected as too expensive, so they were issued a red cloth to wear round their head as a field sign, and a blanket. Some officers found old western clothing to supplement this meagre issue, while some men could bring western clothing they already owned, but initially many of these men were indistinguishable from the Zulus apart from the blanket and head-band. After the initial disasters of the campaign, more uniforms were issued to help bolster morale, and photos of these men show a very wide variety of clothing at all stages of the campaign. Every man in this set has the headband and all but one a blanket, but some are otherwise entirely traditionally dressed, while others wear various bits of western clothing. Everything here matches with photos of these men – even the woollen cap one wears – so full marks for the costume.
After the original one in ten issue of guns, more were later provided, including some decent types, but this set has just one pose holding a rifle. The rest hold their traditional spears and shields. The spears look good, as do the shields, for although they are smaller than we often see in this hobby they are the perfect size for the umbumbuluzo, which was the most common form of shield at the time, while some photos show that even smaller shields were sometimes taken on campaign. A couple of men have acquired haversacks for themselves, and one has a canteen, which seems a reasonable reflection of the very uneven way these men were equipped, particularly early on, so everything is fine in the kit department too…"
See them here.
link
Not bad!
Hope you enjoy!.
Amicalement
Armand
goes to sea with the Terrain Mat.
