Colonel John Rouse Merriott Chard (21 December 1847 – 1 November 1897) was a British Army officer who received the Victoria Cross, the highest military decoration for valour "in the face of the enemy" that can be awarded to members of the British armed forces. He earned the decoration for his role in the defence of Rorke's Drift in January 1879 where he assumed command of the outpost and a small garrison of 139 soldiers and successfully repulsed an assault by some 3,000 to 4,000 Zulu warriors. The battle was recreated in the film Zulu in which Chard was portrayed by Stanley Baker. Born near Plymouth, Chard attended the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich and was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in July 1868. He was involved with the construction of fortifications in the Bermuda Garrison (three years) and at Malta (two years) before he was deployed to southern Africa at the start of the Anglo-Zulu War. At the end of the war he returned to a hero's welcome in England and was invited to an audience with Queen Victoria. After a series of overseas postings he took up his final position in Perth, Scotland. He retired from the army as a colonel in 1897 after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and died at his brother's home in Somerset later that year. Early life Chard was born at Boxhill near Plymouth on 21 December 1847 to William Wheaton Chard and his wife Jane Brimacombe. He had two brothers and four sisters. His elder brother William Wheaton Chard served with the Royal Fusiliers, rising to the rank of colonel, and his younger brother Charles Edward Chard became rector of a parish church in Hatch Beauchamp, Somerset. He was educated at Cheltenham Grammar School and Plymouth New Grammar School, and after a period of private tuition he enrolled at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich. On 14 July 1868 Chard received a commission as a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers and continued his training at Chatham for the next two years. He was posted to Bermuda, along with Lieutenant HP Knacker, in 1870 to construct fortifications at the Naval Dockyard near Hamilton and returned to England four years later for his father's funeral. He was then sent to Malta to assist with the improvement of the island's sea defences. He returned to England in 1876 where he was based at Aldershot