How a 14-Year Old Hero Came to Live at PGS

 by John Sadden

John Dunne followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the army as soon as he was able. He “took the Queen’s shilling” and enlisted as a bugler in the Irish Fusiliers. He stood four feet and three-quarters of an inch tall and was fourteen years old.  

On the 15th December 1899, at the Battle of Colenso near Natal, South Africa, General Hart made a grave tactical error. He sent his men into a loop in the Tugela River in order to make a crossing to attack the enemy. This concentrated and trapped his men in a small area and they were massacred as the Boers opened up with intense fire from three sides.

Bugler Dunne was amongst the few to reach the river. Surrounded by dead and dying comrades, he should have blown the “Retreat”.  Instead, legend claims, he blew the “Advance” and won undying fame. He dropped his bugle in the river when he was shot in the arm and his comrades restrained him from going back to retrieve it.

John Dunne was sent home and he’s seen here getting a hero’s welcome at Portsmouth, supported by his soldier father on the right. Back at Cambridge Barracks (now the school site), he was interviewed by journalists. The subsequent publicity made John a national hero. Queen Victoria invited him to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight where she presented him with a specially engraved silver bugle to replace the one he had lost.

Bugler Dunne’s heroic act helped take people’s minds off the fact that the country had lost the battle with huge loss of life. There were national celebrations and John’s heroism was rewarded with many gifts that were delivered to the High Street Arch. They included what the press described as “a handsome young goat called Jim” who was placed on the regimental books and adopted by the regiment as its mascot.