Ernest Grandier

Ernest Grandier was a French soldier in British service during the Anglo-Zulu War. Born in France, he moved to southern Africa and by the start of 1879 he had enlisted in Weatherley's Border Horse. He served in the Anglo-Zulu War on the British side and was captured by the Zulu at the Battle of Hlobane. According to Grandier's account he was mistreated by the Zulu before escaping back to British lines and this story featured in sensationalist press reports. However, Grandier's account was doubted by contemporary writer Bertram Mitford and modern historian Ian Knight considers that Gandier was treated well and then released by the Zulu king Cetshwayo as a gesture towards peace with the British. Grandier was the only white prisoner of war taken by the Zulu during the war. By 1884 he was an innkeeper near to Kimberley Mine; details of his later life are not known.

Early life and capture Grandier was born in Bordeaux, France, and worked as a stone cutter before emigrating to southern Africa. By the start of the Anglo-Zulu War in January 1879, when he was in his late 20s, he had joined Weatherley's Border Horse, an irregular mounted unit in British service, as a trooper. Weatherley's Border Horse were formed at Pretoria in the South African Republic in November 1878 by Frederick Augustus Weatherley. One of the unit's two troops (numbering 61 men) joined Colonel Evelyn Wood's invasion column and arrived at his camp at Kambula on 2 March. By Grandier's account he dismounted during the withdrawal to place a comrade on his horse and was running alongside when he was tackled by a Zulu and taken prisoner. Zulu War historian Ian Knight considers it more likely that he was captured after becoming separated from his unit and attempting to sneak away to safety. The statements of Zulu veterans, interviewed in the 1930s, agree with this version of the story, noting that Grandier was found some time after the battle, hiding among rocks.

At the time of the initial reporting, the writer Bertram Mitford expressed doubts over the story of Grandier's escape, stating that it was improbable that he could have covered from Ulundi to Zungwini without discovery as the surviving guard would have quickly raised the alarm. The Dutch trader Cornelius Vijn, who had lived with and was familiar with the court of Cetshwayo, heard that Grandier had been well treated as a prisoner, supplied with rum, gin and tobacco and protected by the king. Vijn thought that Grandier had been released near to where he had been captured when it was found he possessed no useful information.