Provenance

Taken by the 13th Light Infantry at the Battle of Kambula during the Anglo-Zulu War and presented to Queen Victoria, 1879. .4 has a painted inscription stating that it was taken from 'the chief'.

In 1879, British ambitions to create an imperial federation in southern Africa resulted in a series of armed conflicts with Cetshwayo, King of the Zulu, whose territory lay between Natal and the Transvaal. Cetshwayo refused to acquiesce to British demands or disband his army, mounting a sustained campaign of fierce resistance. The Battle of Kambula took place on 29 March 1879 when an entrenched British force, led by Colonel Evelyn Wood, repelled and then pursued some 20,000 Zulu who attacked in a formation known as the 'horn of the beast'. Although assegai of this kind were formidable weapons in the hands of trained warriors, they were overwhelmed in this instance by British firepower. Cetshwayo had been able to acquire only old-fashioned muskets and a few modern rifles ahead of the campaign.

On 2 January 1880, Queen Victoria recorded in her Journal that she 'Walked with Beatrice by Barton & the Swiss Cottage [at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight], where we placed, in the museum, some of the assegais & shields, given to me from Zululand.' All four spears are probably among the '8 Assegais' displayed 'Over the Arch' there (1904 Osborne House Swiss Cottage Inventory, p.97). The 1904 inventory description may be incorrect: an undated black and white photograph of the arch in the Museum shows a display of six (not eight) assegais with two Maori clubs.