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Gladstone Returns
In 1878 war broke out in southern Africa. Lord Carnarvon believed that South Africa would become a Dominion. The negotiations were badly mishandled, the annexation of the Transvaal was announced without the consent of the South African people. The Zulus were given until the end of the year
to accept a British commissioner. In January 1879 the British invaded Zululand. The massacre of Rorke's Drift occurred. The British finally won at the battle of Ulundi. Zululand was sliced into eight lands.
Another war was raging in Afghanistan. The Russians had set up a mission in the capital, Kabul. The British wanted similar rights and when they were not granted, the British invaded. By 1879 a British minister was in residence in Kabul with absolute control of Afghan foreign policy. The Afghan troops rebelled and everyone in the Embassy was killed.
Disraeli lost much support over these two wars and lost the election to Gladstone, who was so incensed by Disraeli's mismanagement of foreign policy that he came back from retirement.
W G Grace |
W G GRACE (1848-1915)- Dr William Gilbert Grace
- Cricketer and physician
- Born in Downend near Bristol
- Played for Gloucestershire and England
- First cricketing hero
- His career in first-class cricket lasted from 1864 to 1908
- He made 126 centuries, scored 54,895 runs and took 2,876 wickets
- The greatest cricketer of all time
- Given out, he told an umpire that he would not go because the people had come to see him bat, not to see the umpire make a dubious decision
On his return to politics in 1880 Gladstone fought for the seat of Midlothian? His campaign was called The Midlothian Campaign and it was the first time a Party leader would take his message to the electorate as politicians do today.
HENRY HOOK VC ON THE MASSACRE OF RORKE'S DRIFT
"It was the hospital they assaulted most fiercely. I had charge with a man that we called Old King Cole of a small room with only one patient in it. Cole kept with me for some time after the fight began, then he said he was not going to stay. He went outside and was instantly killed by the Zulus, so that I was left alone with the patient, a native whose leg was broken and who kept crying out, 'Take my bandage off so that I can come'. But it was impossible to do anything but fight , and I blazed away as hard as I could. By this time I was the only defender of my room. "Poor Old King Cole was lying dead outside and the helpless patient was crying and groaning near me. The Zulus were swarming around us, and there was an extraordinary rattle as the bullets struck the biscuit boxes, and queer thuds as they plumped in the bags of melaies. Then there was the whizz and rip of the assegais, of which I had experience during the Kaffir Campaign. We had plenty of ammunition, but we were told to save it and so we took careful aim at every shot, and hardly a cartridge was wasted. Private Dunbar, shot no fewer than nine Zulus, one of them being a Chief ... every now and then one or two managed to crawl in and over the top of the sacks. They were bayoneted off...
 
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| 1837 | Victoria becomes Queen
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| 1859 | Palmerston becomes Prime Minister
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| 1861 | Prince Albert dies
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| 1865 | Palmerston dies
Russell becomes Prime Minister
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| 1868 | Disraeli becomes Prime Minister
Gladstone becomes Prime Minister
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| 1870 | Franco-Prussian War
First Irish Land Act
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| 1874 | Disraeli becomes Prime Minister
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| 1877 | Victoria becomes Empress of India
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| 1880 | Gladstone becomes Prime Minister
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| 1881 | Disraeli dies
Second Irish Land Act
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| 1885 | Salisbury becomes Prime Minister
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| 1887 | Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee
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| 1892 | Gladstone becomes Prime Minister
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| 1894 | Rosebery becomes Prime Minister
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| 1895 | Salisbury becomes Prime Minister
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| 1897 | Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee
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| 1898 | Gladstone dies
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| 1899 | Second Boer War breaks out
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| 1901 | Queen Victoria dies
Edward VII becomes king
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