Several relatives of John Fielding, who was awarded the Victoria Cross in 1880, attended yesterday’s annual memorial service at his grave in Llantarnam.
John Williams VC (born John Fielding) fought at the Battle of Rorke’s Drift in South Africa from 22-23 January 1879. The Victoria Cross is given for bravery in the ‘presence of the enemy‘.
A large crowd stood in the grounds of St Michael’s & All Angels Church for a 25-minute service to mark the 144th anniversary of the Battle. It included several readings, hymms, a minute’s silence and the Last Post. The Regimental Band and Corps of Drums of the Royal Welsh and Piping Hot Cwmbran, both played.
The service was led by Reverend Frieda Evans with Reverend Elizabeth Kerl and Reverend Caron Brian Pippen.
Colin Fielding, John Fielding’s great-grandson attended the service with two of his children, Alex and Hannah. He said: “It’s very emotional. I used to do reenactments. The number of people who would come up to me and say ‘thanks’ (for John Fielding’s bravery at Rorke’s Drift).”
The Battle was made into a film starring Michael Caine. Peter Gill played the Cwmbran hero.
Colin said: “The film (Zulu) came out in 1964 which was perfect timing for that film to come out. It was far enough away from World War II yet, the picture, the cinema was the number one thing to do. Every dad took his eight-year-old son to see it and those eight-year-olds now are 50/ 60, my age, it was their first film. best film ever.
“It’s remarkable. I’ve been coming here for 20 years now. What it must have been like on the day of the funeral with the gunfire going off. Where I used to live in Essex, there is a combined military museum there and an elderly lady wsa there. The archivist at the museum got chatting to her and introduced this lady to me, ‘this is Colin Fielding’. She went, ‘oh’. She was at the funeral, as a six-years-old. All the schools came out utterly terrified by the gun carriage, the clanking chains.
“It’s a special day.”
Claire Callow and her two children, Owain Clayton and Kasey Clayton, all work in the Cwmbran Wetherspoons pub named after her great-great-grandfather. The pub’s landlady Carol Cooper has been representing the pub at the service for years and a chance conversation with Claire led to a job.
Claire said: “I met Carol here years ago, ten years ago actually, and she gave me a job and now they (her two children) are old enough to work so they are in, thanks to Carol.” She said they have been attending the annual service for years: “We love it. Very proud and privileged.”
Photos of the John Fielding memorial service
Click here to watch a Facebook Live video of the service.
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