attempt to escape with the colour before retiring to his tent, possibly to write a letter to his family, or alternatively to sketch a report of the defeat for Chelmsford. Before he could finish a Zulu confronted him and, despite wounding the man in the neck with his revolver, Pulleine was fatally stabbed by an assegai. An unknown source describes Pulleine as having died 'early' in the fighting, and according to Henry Curling of the N/5 battery, Coghill informed him Pulleine was dead when he met Curling and Stuart-Smith as they began their flight to the Buffalo River. This account is supported by that of another British survivor Pte Bickley, who mentions Coghill reporting to Melvill that Pulleine 'had been shot.' This version of events would explain why Durnford was apparently unable to locate Pulleine once his force returned to the camp as the rout began. Furthermore, in his memoir A Lost Legionary in South Africa, Commandant George Hamilton Browne describes coming across and saluting Pulleine's corpse on his way back from visiting his tent on the morning of the 23rd. Hamilton-Browne's 1st/3rd NNC had their tents on the extreme left of the camp, so the account would be consistent with Pulleine having died here. It is also possible that Pulleine survived the British collapse, only to be killed in one of the desperate last stands which took place after it became obvious the British were doomed. Such a scenario is supported by at least one survivor account. Cracroft Nourse, a company commander with the NNC, describes how he saw 'half a company of the 24th, with their colonel in their midst, assegaied.' near the foot of Isandlwana hill as he began his escape. Analysis Pulleine remains an obscure figure in the history of the Anglo-Zulu war. This is perhaps summed up in his portrayal by Denholm Elliott in 1979's Zulu Dawn, as an affable, though retiring and somewhat ineffectual man. He was an able administrator, both in the commissariat department in the 1860s, for which he had received a commendation, and in South Africa during the Xhosa wars. Pulleine's dispositions at Isandlwana were a contributing factor in the British defeat. Yet he had to deploy his men further from the camp in order to assist Durnford, who would have been unable to disengage and retire alone, and whom Pulleine had promised to support. Also, Pulleine would almost certainly have