To the Editor of the "Nortu-Cuina Dairy Noi Stx,—Will you kindly grant me space in your valuable paper in order to clear up mistake as to which were the last British Colours in action.
In your issue of the 20th instant, on page 10, and in the second column under—"From Day to Day," it is stated that the decision for regiments no longer to carry their colours into the field was arrived at as a result of the tragic incident at Isandlwana to the 24th Regiment, when an heroic attempt was made by Lieutenants Melville and Coghill to save the colours of the 2th Regiment, and both officers perished. The tragic incident is quite true, the heroic attempt to save the colours is also quite true; but the decision that colours were no longer to be taken into the field did not take place {till after the termination of the Boor War of 1881. The Isendlwane affair occurred on January 22, 1879.
The battle of Long's Nek was fought on January 28, 1881, and the colours of the then 58th Rutland-shire Regiment were present during the engagement, and were carried by Lieutenants Peel and Dol-plun, with four Colour Sergeants as escort, During the action Lieutenant Dolphin and two of the escort were killed, and the writer of this, who was also one of the es-cart, was wounded.
On the return of the 58th Regiment to England after a lengthy period of foreign service, a new set of colours were about to be presented to the regiment, when the officers petitioned her late Majesty Queen Victoria, praying that they might be allowed to retain the old colours as they were the last in action. Her Majesty graciously granted their request. Thege colours were presented to the 58th Remment at Aldershot in 1859; so that the regiment holds a dual honour,—that of possessing the oldest colours in the British Army, and also those that were the last in scginal fror
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.