Mexborough & Swinton Times, March 15, 1929

Wombwell Men’s Reminiscences.

Three Weeks Shipwrecked

There lives at Wombwell a veteran of the Zulu War, Mr. James Crompton, of 16 Hawson Street.

Mr. Crompton is 76 Years of age, and lives with his daughter, Mrs J. Whitehead.

He is a native of Farnsworth, Lancashire,

At eight he had to go into the pits and he was 71 before he retired from work. Forty-three years ago he moved into Durham. His first effort to enlist was made on the 1st April, 1875. He went to the barracks in. Durham with that intention, when he encountered the sentry at the gates. “What,” said the sentry, “going to join up on the 1st of April; don’t make a fool of yourself!”

The sentry’s tone must have impressed the pit lad, for he took the tip and went home. However, next day he was at the barracks again, and this time was accepted and placed in the Cheshire Regiment, and volunteered for the campaign in Abyssinia. The battalion he was to have joined, however, had already been made up to strength, and the volunteers did not go out. But he did not remain long in England. The trouble in Zululand developed, and the battalion to which Crompton belonged were ordered out immediately. They left Southampton on the transport St. Lawrence. Some hundred miles from Capetown a storm was encountered and the ship struck on a reef, where it remained in a precarious state for three weeks until the cruisers “Active’ and “Spartan” came to their rescue.

They first encountered the Zulus at Innizani and he himself was among the “Heroes of Ekowe.” He tells a graphic story of the circumstances under which Lord Chelmsford came to relieve him. “When I first saw Lord Chelmsford,’ he said, “he was the smartest looking man I had ever come across. The next time I saw him the massacre of the 24th had preyed on his mind, and he was like a ghost.” Mr. Crompton remained in Africa two years, and was afterwards drafted to Mauritius, Ceylon, Singapore, Malacca, and Hong Kong, and finally invalided home. He holds the South. African (1879) medal and clasp.

At the outbreak of the Great War he volunteered for active service,  and was greatly disappointed when “turned down.”

Afterwards, however, he secured employment as a shell inspector. Peace came and  he went back to work at the Pits in Durham until he was 71. Two sons and two sons-in-law served in France during the war, and one son and son-in-law lost their lives.