Ferdinand Schiess

He defended the barricade while wounded at the mission post.

Christian Ferdinand Schiess was born in Switzerland in 1856 and was raised in an orphanage. He later settled in southern Africa and joined colonial forces. In the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 he served as a corporal with the Natal Native Contingent.

Schiess was at the Rorke's Drift mission station when Zulu forces attacked on 22 January. Already suffering from an injured foot, he helped defend the barricade and fought at close quarters. When attackers threatened the wall, he moved along its exposed edge and drove them back. His conduct during the defence earned the Victoria Cross, the first awarded to a Swiss national and the first to a member of South African forces.

His later circumstances deteriorated. He struggled to obtain steady employment and eventually secured passage toward Britain aboard HMS Serapis. He died at sea in December 1884 and was buried in the Atlantic. His Victoria Cross survives in the National Army Museum, his surviving decoration preserving the memory of his defence of the mission.