his panel depicts the Shangani patrol about to ride out on the most heroic episode in modern Rhodesian history.

fter defeating the Matabele at the Shangani and Bembesi, Dr. Jameson’s fighting column entered Lobengula’s kraal of Bulawayo on 4 November 1893 at the end of a charmed campaign which had lasted barely a month. But the triumph could not be considered complete until the King had surrendered with the remnants of the army.

ameson attempted to negotiate Lobengula’s surrender from Bulawayo, but the King thought only of escaping across the Zambezi. A flying column of mounted men under Major Forbes was accordingly sent out to capture the King. On 3 December the column reached the Shangani River and learned that Lobengula was only a few miles ahead. In the afternoon Forbes despatched Major Wilson with a patrol of fourteen men to attempt the King’s capture. Wilson soon came up to the King’s camp but night was falling and it was surrounded by warriors.

ilson decided to bivouac nearby and to send a messenger to Forbes asking for support. In response Forbes sent twenty additional men to reinforce Wilson and prepared to follow them over the river the next morning. At dawn on 4 December, however, the Matabele opened fire on Wilson’s little force of men. Wilson had time to send off further requests for support before the Matabele surrounded him. Forbes was unable to comply for the Shangani was in spate.

he fight which followed between thirty-four white men and the thousands of Lobengula’s warriors lasted all morning. Towards 11 o’clock the Matabele called on the surviving men of the patrol to surrender, but they had no thought of submission. About noon the last white man died. The Matabele Induna, looking at the circle of bodies, stood for a moment and intoned words which are remembered with pride in Rhodesia: “They were men of men,” he said, “and their fathers were men before them.” It was an epitaph which the Shangani patrol would have appreciated.

ome months later the bodies of Wilson’s men were buried under a tree on which had been carved ‘To brave men”. They were then re-buried near Zimbabwe but Mr. Rhodes eventually had their remains moved to World’s View in the Matopos where they now rest close to the founder’s grave.