Nevill Coghill (VC)

Born in Drumcondra, Dublin at Belvidere House, Coghill was the eldest son of Sir John Joscelyn Coghill (1826–1905), 4th Baronet, JP, DL, of Drumcondra, County Dublin (see Coghill baronets), and his wife, the Hon. Katherine Frances Plunket, daughter of John Plunket, 3rd Baron Plunket. He was a nephew of David Plunket, 1st Baron Rathmore and William Plunket, 4th Baron Plunket. The painter Sir Egerton Coghill, 5th Baronet was his younger brother and he named his son, Nevill Coghill in his honour. Coghill's nephew became a literary scholar and a member of the Inklings with C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien.{{cite web | url=https://www.christianity.com/wiki/people/nevill-coghill-cs-lewis-friend.html | title=Why Don't More People Know about C.S. Lewis' Friend Nevill Coghill? }}

Coghill was educated at Haileybury College from 1865 to 1869.{{Cite web |url=http://www.haileybury.com/medals/victoria_cross.htm |title=Haileybury Website - Details of military medals |access-date=18 November 2013 |archive-date=27 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120427154749/http://www.haileybury.com/medals/victoria_cross.htm |url-status=dead }} In 1876 he set sail with the 24th Regiment of Foot to Cape.

File:Fugitives Drift Memorial Cross.JPG

Coghill was twenty-six years old and a lieutenant in the 1st Battalion, 24th Regiment of Foot (2nd Warwickshires), British Army, during the Anglo-Zulu War, when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC. He was an orderly officer to Colonel R. T. Glyn, who regarded him as his favourite officer and the son he never had.{{cn|date=January 2022}}

On 22 January 1879, after the disaster of the Battle of Isandlwana, South Africa, Lieutenant Coghill joined Lieutenant Teignmouth Melvill{{London Gazette |issue=24705|date= 4 April 1879|page=2676}} who was trying to save the Queen's Colour of the Regiment. They were pursued by Zulu warriors, and while crossing the swollen River Buffalo, Lieutenant Coghill (despite his injured knee) went to the rescue of his brother officer, who had lost his horse and was in great danger. Although Coghill's horse was shot by a Zulu warrior, the valiant soldier swam on to rescue Melvill. After some time, the Colour was swept from their grasp and floated down the bank. After reaching the bank, the two men were eventually overtaken by the Zulu warriors and, following a short struggle, both were killed.{{London Gazette |issue=27986|date=15 January 1907 |page=325}}{{Cite web|url=http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol016db.html|title = "FOR VALOUR" AT FUGITIVES' DRIFT - South African Military History Society - Journal}} Lieutenant Walter Higginson, who was persuaded to escape, heard and witnessed their final actions when they fought to the last. The Colour was retrieved from the river ten days later by a mounted party under Major Wilsone Black.{{London Gazette |issue=27986|date=15 January 1907 |page=325}}

Two weeks after the battle, Coghill and Melvill's bodies were found by a search party{{cite web|title=The Gazette hall of fame: Melvill and Coghill|url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/all-notices/content/144|work=The Gazette|accessdate=4 April 2016}} and both buried at Fugitive's Drift.{{cite web|title=Nevill Coghill VC|url=https://www.haileybury.com/explore/haileybury/heritage-archives/notable-haileyburians/nevill-coghill-vc|website=haileybury.com|publisher=Explore Haileybury|accessdate=24 March 2016|archive-date=9 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409105712/https://www.haileybury.com/explore/haileybury/heritage-archives/notable-haileyburians/nevill-coghill-vc|url-status=dead}} Major-General Dillon informed Coghill's father in a letter, that had it not been for the valour of his son, the Colour would have fallen to Zulu hands. Coghill's father donated his son's trophies including a Zulu shield to the Museum of Science and Art, now the National Museum of Ireland.{{cite web|title=A father's tribute? The war trophies of Lieutenant Nevill Coghill VC|url=http://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/a-fathers-tribute-the-war-trophies-of-lieutenant-nevill-coghill-vc/|website=historyireland.com|publisher=History Ireland|accessdate=5 April 2016|year=2009}} Coghill and Melvill were amongst the first soldiers to receive the VC posthumously in 1907. Initially The London Gazette mentioned that had they survived they would have been awarded the VC.{{London Gazette |issue=24717|date=2 May 1879 |page=3178}}

File:Last Sleep of the Brave.jpg after Alphonse de Neuville, 1881)]]

A few months after the Battle of Isandlwana, a French battle artist, Alphonse de Neuville painted Coghill and Melvill's actions when they were pursued by Zulu warriors.{{cite book|author1=Saul David|title=Zulu: The Heroism and Tragedy of the Zulu War of 1879|year=2005|publisher=Penguin Adult |isbn=9780141015699|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6NIMfVkzbiEC&q=Coghill+|accessdate=24 March 2016}}

The attempted escape of Melvill and Nevill Coghill was depicted in the 1918 silent film Symbol of Sacrifice.{{cite book |last1=Beckett |first1=Ian F. W. |title=Rorke's Drift and Isandlwana |date=2019|pages=134–135 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-879412-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TB0gEAAAQBAJ }}

Coghill was portrayed by Christopher Cazenove in the 1979 film Zulu Dawn as a polite and humorous officer.{{cite web|author1=Anthony Hayward|author-link=Anthony Hayward|title=Christopher Cazenove obituary|url=https://www.theguardian.com/global/2010/apr/08/christopher-cazenove-obituary|work=The Guardian|accessdate=22 July 2015|date=8 April 2010|quote=He was....the Zulu War hero Lieutenant Coghill in Zulu Dawn (1979)}}{{cite web|title=Zulu Dawn (1979)|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b69642090|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160507044427/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b69642090|url-status=dead|archive-date=7 May 2016|website=bfs.org.uk|publisher=British Film Institute|accessdate=8 April 2016}}{{cite web|author1=Ian Nathan|title=Zulu Dawn Review|url=http://www.empireonline.com/movies/zulu-dawn/review/|work=Empire|accessdate=8 April 2016|date=3 August 2006}} In the film, he is friends with Melvill; their heroic actions when they crossed the Buffalo River in a desperate attempt to return the Queen's Colour back to Natal was depicted in the film.

Coghill's great-great-great grand-niece, Jane Mann, in 2014, passed a painting (of her ancestor and Melvill pursued by Zulus) by contemporary military artist Jason Askew to the Victoria Cross Museum.{{cite web|author1=David Ross|title=Historians uncover colourful truth about officer's last stand|url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13141720.Historians_uncover_colourful_truth_about_officer_s_last_stand/|work=The Herald|date=22 January 2014 |location=Glasgow|accessdate=24 March 2016}}

The Colour which Coghill and Melvill tried to save was recovered and is on display at Brecon Cathedral in remembrance of their valour as well as other soldiers killed during the battle. Coghill's Victoria Cross is permanently displayed at the Regimental Museum of The Royal Welsh in Brecon, Powys, Wales. At Haileybury College, a leadership programme for pupils in Removes is named in his honour.{{dead link|date=August 2020}}

{{Reflist}}

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• {{Find a Grave|11682}}
• National Army Museum [https://web.archive.org/web/20070716121642/http://www.national-army-museum.ac.uk/exhibitions/vc/page3.shtml Posthumous VCs: Lieutenant Nevill Coghill]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110530012018/http://www.duncanlarkin.com/images/coghill1.JPG A painting of Nevill Coghill]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20111016205346/http://allatsea.co.za/vcgraves/fugitivesvcmemorial.htm Memorial to Nevill Coghill on Fugitive's Drift, below Itchiane Hill]

{{Royal Welsh}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Coghill, Nevill Joseph Aylmer}}

Category:1852 births

Category:1879 deaths

Category:19th-century Irish military personnel

Category:Irish officers in the British Army

Category:Irish recipients of the Victoria Cross

Category:People from Drumcondra, Dublin

Category:South Wales Borderers officers

Category:Anglo-Zulu War recipients of the Victoria Cross

Category:Heirs apparent who never acceded

Category:British military personnel killed in the Anglo-Zulu War

Category:British Army personnel of the Anglo-Zulu War

Category:British Army recipients of the Victoria Cross

Category:People educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College

Category:Military personnel from Dublin (city)