Edmund Fowler

He pressed on into a defended cave after his leader was shot

Edmund John Fowler VC was a young private when he helped drive Zulu defenders from a cave on Hlobane Mountain on 28 March 1879. He continued forward after the officer leading the attack was killed, earning the Victoria Cross alongside Lieutenant Henry Lysons.

Born near Waterford in Ireland around 1861, Fowler enlisted in 1877. He went to South Africa the following year and served in the Cape frontier fighting before the Zulu War. His unit, the 90th Regiment of Foot, formed part of Evelyn Wood's force operating in northern Zululand.

At Hlobane, enemy fire came from natural caves overlooking the British troops. Captain Ronald Campbell led Lysons and Fowler up a narrow route among boulders towards one of these positions. Campbell was shot at the entrance. Rather than retreat, Lysons and Fowler went on and cleared the stronghold. Their conduct was recognised in 1882, when Fowler received his VC from Queen Victoria.

After leaving the 90th, he re-enlisted and served with Irish regiments, including in Egypt. His later career included disciplinary trouble and reduction in rank, but he retained his Victoria Cross after the proposed forfeiture was not approved. He regained promotion and eventually became a colour-sergeant in the Scottish Rifles. Discharged as medically unfit in 1900, he settled in Colchester and worked as a publican and greengrocer. He died on 26 March 1926 and was buried in Colchester Cemetery.

Victoria Cross citation, London Gazette, 7 April 1882:

Lieutenant Henry Lysons, 2nd Battalion, The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), and Private Edmond Fowler (since discharged).

On the 28th March, 1879, during the assault of the Inhlobane Mountain, Sir Evelyn Wood ordered the dislodgment of certain Zulus (who were causing the Troops much loss) from strong natural caves commanding the position in which some of the wounded were lying. Some delay occurring in the execution of the orders issued, Captain the Honourable Ronald Campbell, Coldstream Guards, followed by Lieutenant Lysons, Aide-de-Camp, and Private Fowler, ran forward in the most determined manner, and advanced over a mass of fallen boulders, and between walls of rock, which led to a cave in which the enemy lay hidden. It being impossible for two men to walk abreast, the assailants were consequently obliged to keep in single file, and as Captain Campbell was leading, he arrived first at the mouth of the cave, from which the Zulus were firing, and there met his death. Lieutenant Lysons and Private Fowler, who were following close behind him, immediately dashed at the cave, from which led several subterranean passages, and firing into the chasm below, succeeded in forcing the occupants to forsake their stronghold. Lieutenant Lysons remained at the cave's mouth for some minutes after the attack, during which time Captain Campbell's body was carried down the slopes.