Gert Adendorff

Gert Wilhelm Adendorff (10 July 1848) was a member of the Natal Native Contingent notable for being the only soldier on the British side present at both the Battle of Isandlwana and the Battle of Rorke's Drift during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. He was portrayed as a character in the film Zulu.

Battle of Isandlwana

On the morning of the Battle of Isandlwana Adendorff brought reports in to the Camp from the outlying Natal Native Contingent pickets on the iNyoni Ridge. During the battle Adendorff’s company was held in reserve formed up in front of the Camp where Adendorff remained with his men until they broke and fled during the final ferocious and determined Zulu attack. He and the other officers of the NNC, realising that the battle was lost, fled with them. Lieutenant Higginson of the NNC in his report recorded that: Capt. Krohn, Lieut. Ordendorf [sic] and myself had been firing for some time on the right of our companies tents, and when we saw the soldiers retreating we went for our horses which we had fastened close to us to be ready for any emergency.

When his horse was killed under him as he rode down into the Manzimnyama Valley he commandeered another at gunpoint from a mounted auxiliary and escaped from the battlefield with inkosi Hlubi's mounted Sotho troop. Breaking through the 'right horn' of the Zulu attack they followed the Buffalo River upstream where many were caught and killed by the fast-moving Zulu warriors pursuing them. The survivors including Adendorff stopped and rested their horses on the ground just below Rorke's Drift. They called out to be taken across the river. In his report Chard wrote: My attention was called to two horsemen galloping towards us from the direction of Isandlwana. From their gesticulations and their shouts, when they were near enough to be heard, we saw that something was the matter, and on taking them over the river, one of them, Lieut. Adendorff of Lonsdale's Regiment, Natal Native Contingent, asking if I was an officer, jumped off his horse, took me on one side, and told me the camp was in the hands of the Zulus and the army destroyed; that scarcely a man had got away to tell the tale, and that probably Lord Chelmsford and the rest of the column had shared the same fate. His companion, a Carbineer, confirmed his story.

In 1883 Adendorff spoke with Walter Stafford about what happened that day, with Stafford recording: A friend of mine, Lieut. Odendorff, and another man, as both could not swim, hugged the bed of the river up to the punt and were ferried across the river. It was them who gave the alarm at Rorke's Drift

In his official report of the Battle of Rorke's Drift Chard stated that Adendorff was the only survivor from Isandlwana who stayed to assist with the defence at Rorke's Drift, taking up position inside the storehouse and remaining there throughout the battle.

Chard in his two reports on the battle stated that he believed Adendorff was among the defenders at Rorke’s Drift. Further testimony that Adendorff was among those fighting in the storehouse was provided by Trooper Symons of the Natal Carbineers who, while not present at the battle himself, spoke to some who were. Symons wrote: When the hospital was fired by the Zulus, the men at once set to work to pull off the thatch from the dwelling house. A German or some foreigner who was with the garrison saved that building from fire for he saw a Zulu with a lighted bunch of grass just raising it up to the eaves and promptly shot him.

This is clearly a description of Adendorff who was the only man speaking a foreign language at Rorke’s Drift apart from Corporal Schiess who was fighting on the barricades before he was injured. Harford also drew a sketch of Adendorff at Rorke’s Drift with some of his men when the NNC was disbanded and the Natives were handing in their weapons and equipment.

Trooper Symons of the Natal Carbineers was among those with Lord Chelmsford’s relief column, and he recorded that Adendorff was present that morning. The fact that he was a stranger and was in the storehouse throughout the battle accounts for his relative invisibility. In addition, the war correspondent Charles Norris-Newman was among Lord Chelmsford’s relief column that entered Rorke's Drift the morning after the battle and recorded: The following officers were also present at the post and rendered material aid in the defence: Dr. Reynolds, 1-24th, Lieutenant Adendorff 1-3rd NCC, Messrs. Dunne, and Dalton, of the Commissariat Department, also the Rev. Mr. Smith, Protestant Chaplain to No 3 Column.

Adendorff was a volunteer while professional soldiers such as Horace Smith-Dorrien and others thought the best option was to escape from Isandlwana and head for Helpmekaar and remain with their reputations unblemished rather than risk further engagement with the Zulu as Adendorff did in sprinting for Rorke's Drift.