War tale goes under the hammer

AN Oldham teenager’s harrowing account of how he had to bury hundreds of comrades massacred by Zulus will go under the hammer tomorrow.

The horrific details were written by 19-year-old Captain Percival Armitage in a 26-page letter to his mother after the 1879 battle at Isandlwana.

The battle, in which 1,800 British soldiers faced 20,000 Zulus, preceded the defence of Rorke’s Drift.

The story was retold a century later in the film “Zulu Dawn” starring Burt Lancaster and Bob Hoskins.

Captain Armitage, who was serving in the 2nd Battalion 24th Foot, marched 11 miles from Rorke’s Drift to help bury 1,300 men.

He told his mother in the letter: “The scene was frightful. Bodies lying about in every direction and every position. Some features calm, others distorted with all the agonies of a painful death. This is the dark side of war.”

The privately-owned letter, in which Capt Armitage said it took four days to bury the dead, is dated August 2, 1879. It will be auctioned at Wallis and Wallis of Lewes, East Sussex, with a pre-sale estimate of £500.