Gonville Bromhead (29 August 1845 – 9 February 1891) was a British Army Major who was awarded the Victoria Cross for his leadership and bravery at the 1879 Battle of Rorke's Drift during the Anglo-Zulu War. Bromhead also served in the Third Anglo-Burmese War, and he died of typhoid fever while stationed at Allahabad in British India in 1891.
Biography[]
Bromhead in 1879
Gonville Bromhead was born in Versailles, France on 29 August 1845 to a British military family, and he was raised in Thurlby, Lincolnshire and educated in Newark-on-Trent. He joined the British Army in 1867 and became a lieutenant in 1871, and his battalion was deployed to South Africa in 1878. Bromhead served in the wars with the Xhosa and the Zulus, and, on 22-23 January 1879, he was the second-in-command at the Battle of Rorke's Drift, reluctantly serving under Lieutenant John Chard. Bromhead suffered psychological trauma after the battle, but he and Chard were hailed as heroes by the British public. Bromhead was awarded the Victoria Cross and brevetted a Major, and, on his return to the United Kingdom, the village of Thurlby presented him with an illuminated address and a revolver, while Lincoln awarded him a sword. He was deployed to Gibraltar in 1880, to India from 1880 to 1881 and from 1883 to 1886, to Burma from 1886 to 1888 (serving in the Third Anglo-Burmese War), and then to Allahabad, British India, where Bromhead died of typhoid fever in 1891 at the age of 45.