The story of the memorial in St Margert's Church to Nelson Kempsell and Edward Flint

While most villages have war memorials not many commemorate deaths in the Zulu War. St. Margaret’s Chipstead is unusual in having a marble plaque commemorating two soldiers who died at Isandlwana, the first engagement of the Zulu War of 1879.Before they joined the army both men were employed on the Shabden Estate in Chipstead.

The memorial is located in the north aisle of St. Margaret’s Church that had been added in 1883 using funds donated by JG Cattley - the Cattley family owned Shabden between 1844 and 1906 .

We know most about Nelson Kempsell. He was born at Chipstead, Surrey in early 1855 and baptised at 'Kingswood by Reigate' on 18 March 1855; the 1871 census reveals that young Nelson was employed as an agricultural worker. Shortly after his enlistment in the 24th Foot, he was posted to the 1st Battalion in Gibraltar where regimental musters reveal he had a spell in hospital, followed by two days in a military prison. In early 1875 the Battalion embarked for the Cape of Good Hope, where Kempsell again found himself in confinement at Simon's Town, losing his recently acquired Lance-Corporal's stripes (he seems to have reacquired them before his death).

Edward Flint was born in Froyle in Hampshire where the younger Peter Aubertin had held a curacy. It is likely that the Flint family had been in service to the Aubertin family and moved to Chipstead with them when Peter replaced his father as Rector of St. Margarets in 1861. 

The battle of Isandlwana was the disastrous start of a war started by the British in order to annex Zululand. The British plan was to invade using three columns approaching from different directions. The central column of 5,000 men had however been weakened by the majority of the troops being sent on a futile exercise in search of the enemy based on faulty intelligence. This left the remaining troops camped at Isandlwana very exposed.

The camp had about 1700 soldiers defending it - 1,000 British Soldiers of the 24^th Regiment of Foot with the remainder made up of colonial troops and poorly armed African auxiliaries. The British were completely unaware of a force of about 20,000 Zulus who attacked the camp early in the morning of January 22 1879. Initially it was hoped that the British, armed with the breech loading Martini-Henry rifle, would be able to hold the Zulus at bay. However, the British defensive position was too far away from the camp and this hampered communications and made it difficult to resupply them. The Zulus encircled the exposed lines using a tactic known as ‘the horns of the buffalo’ and the camp was overwhelmed.

Towards the end of the battle, about 3,000 Zulu warriors crossed the Buffalo River and attacked the fortified mission station at Rorke’s Drift.   The station was defended by only 150 British soldiers, who repelled the attack despite incurring many casualties. The action saw 11 Victoria Crosses awarded - the most ever received for a single action by one regiment. More recently the Battle of Rorke’s Drift was immortalised by the 1964 film ‘Zulu’, starring Michael Caine and Stanley Baker.  Perhaps not surprisingly little has been done to commemorate the much larger battle at Isandlwana – other than in Chipstead of course!

Ian Baker, Chipstead History Group