Zulu actor backs honour for hero of real battle

10:45am Friday 25th July 2008

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This is Tom Gerard on the set of epic war movie Zulu with Michael Caine during a break in filming.

Tom played a lance corporal in the 24th Foot alongside Caine, Stanley Baker, Nigel Green, James Booth, Jack Hawkins and Ivor Emmanuel, during the famous re-enactment of the heroic defence of Rorke’s Drift.

He contacted The Argus to support plans to unveil a blue heritage plaque in memory of a real veteran of the battle who lived in Worthing.

Argus reporter Paul Holden hopes to install the plaque on a terrace house in Cranmer Road at the end of September.

The tribute will honour Private William Cooper, who survived the bloody hand-tohand combat against thousands of Zulus and later became a brewer’s drayman.

Tom, now 76, of Lansdowne Place, Hove, had worked as a circus performer and actor when he received a call from Zulu star and producer Baker, an old friend, who said: “Do you fancy filming in South Africa?”

He jumped at the chance and spent eight months of 1963 shooting the movie, for which he was paid £11,000.

Tom, who appeared in numerous battle scenes, said the directors had real problems with the Zulus who couldn’t stop laughing when the tips of their rubber spears wobbled. Finally, they flew in Custer’s Last Stand, starring Errol Flynn, and showed it on a 30ft-high screen, urging the Zulus to act as ferociously as the American Indians when they overran the 7th Cavalry.

It had the desired effect as dozens of spear shafts were thrown at the screen, leaving it peppered with holes.

Tom said: “We stood there dumbfounded the first time the Zulus appeared on the top of the hill over our mockup of Rorke’s Drift and began chanting.

“The actor playing a South African scout said: ‘You are listening to a thousand years of war.’ “There was a sense we were doing something special and it turned out to be a great movie – one of the best action movies ever made.”

Tom shared a round hut in the bush with Caine, whose career took off after Zulu.

While he was destined for Hollywood, Tom went to the Bahamas to work in a casino.

That is where he first saw Zulu and when word got round he was in the movie the casino closed for the night so everybody could see it.

Tom has dozens of behindthe- scenes photographs of the filming, including Caine CLASSIC: Tom Gerard with Michael Caine on the set of Zulu having his make-up applied.

He said the plaque was a great idea and he hoped to attend the unveiling. Pte Cooper died on February 19, 1942, aged 86, and was cremated at Woodvale Crematorium, Brighton.

Mr Holden has secured cash from the Worthing Society conservation group, the Worthing Combined Exservices Association and the Royal Welsh Regiment, successors of the 24th Foot, for the memorial. Isabel Forester, who now lives at the house, said: “It was such a big surprise to learn that Pte Cooper lived here.

“I didn’t know anything about it before reading it in the newspaper.

“There weren’t many soldiers at Rorke’s Drift, so it’s going to be an unusual and interesting feature.”

Mr Holden plans to invite civic dignitaries, former soldiers and possibly a marching band to the unveiling and hopes the Royal Welsh might send a bugler.

He has also contacted leading Zulu historian Ian Knight, originally from Shoreham, and a group of Zulu War re-enactors.

The Zulus attacked Rorke’s Drift on January 22, 1879, when just 140 men held off repeated attacks from 4,000 fearless warriors, shouting “usutu”, or “kill”, as they repeatedly flung themselves against the hastily erected defences.

The redcoats lost 17 men but killed at least 350 attackers, a total which did not include many of the wounded who were removed from the battlefield and died later.

Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded after the action, which helped restore British pride after a major defeat at Isandhlwana, when around 1,600 troops, including 600 men from the 24th, were wiped out.

Pte Cooper should have been among those butchered at Isandhlwana, but hours before the attack he was sent back to Rorke’s Drift to pick up supplies.