Colour Sgt Bourne.

[johnm]

Hello love the new figures. Don't mean to be a smart arse but Colour Sgt Bourne didn't win the VC, think he got the DCM


































'n't

[Paul @ Warlord Games]

We're both right.

He was awarded the Victoria Cross for his heroics at Rorke's Drift but elected to take a DCM and promotion in it's place. Given that technically he won the VC we've followed that route.

[Big Al]

Hello love the new figures. Don't mean to be a smart arse but Colour Sgt Bourne didn't win the VC, think he got the DCM

Apparently by choice! He took promotion instead and finished as a Lieutenant Colonel.

[grant]

Hello love the new figures. Don't mean to be a smart arse but Colour Sgt Bourne didn't win the VC, think he got the DCM

Apparently by choice! He took promotion instead and finished as a Lieutenant Colonel.

That's one heck of a story. Did not know that.

[Invisible officer]

Paul, sorry to be an a.. But Bourne did not choose a commission in 1880, he got it in 1890. Being a man with a large family to fed he was not able to take the commission in 1880 and declined the offer. No VC offer, he got the DCM and the 10 £ per year that had been combined with that decoration.

Bourne was just 24 and a dwarf of 1,68m. , from my 1,83 the world is ....

[Undave]

And he died aged 90 on V.E. day, apparently the last survivor of Rorkes Drift. Maybe the celebrations got to him.

[Cubster]

Bourne was just 24 and a dwarf of 1,68m. , from my 1,83 the world is ....

5'6" wasn't that short back then, about or just a little under average height. He was known as 'The Kid' not because of his height, but because he was the youngest Colour Sergeant in the British Army.

As IO says, he turned down the commission, not the VC, because even now mess and uniform bills mean that going from the sergeants' to the officers' mess means a considerable drop in net income!

[Centurion Dan]

He was commisioned in 1890 and retired in 1907. At the outbreak of the First World War he re-enlisted and by 1918 recieved the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and an OBE.
Not bad for the youngest Colour Sgt in the British army - he was 24 at the Battle of Rorkes Drift.

[Bryan]

Hi,

Frank Bourne was commissioned as an Hon. Lieut. on the 21st May 1890, he served a further two years as the Regimental Quarter Master to the 24th Foote. After which he was appointed as the Quarter Master and Acting Adjutant at the School of Musketry, Hythe on the 1st May 1893. He became an Hon. Captain on the 21st May 1900.
From the Army lists;
Captain Frank Bourne served in the Kafir War in 1877-78 and took part in the operations against the Galekas; also in the Zulu War in 1879 including the defence of Rorke’s Drift (mention in dispatches, medal with clasp and Medal for Distinguished Conduct in the Field), served with the Burmese Expedition in 1887-89 (medal with clasp).

[Correus]

Gee guys - thanks(!!!), thanks a lot!! Now I hear the chants of a thousand Zulus calling me.....