more partitions – and they were then able to bring eight patients into the inner line of defence." The 1881 census shows Henry Hook V.C. as a servant in the household of George Owen Willis, a doctor in Monmouth, Monmouthshire. The medal His Victoria Cross is displayed at the South Wales Borderers Museum, Brecon, Powys, Wales. In popular culture A poem describing Hook's part in the battle of Rorke's Drift was written by William McGonagall in 1899. In the film Zulu, Hook is depicted as an insubordinate malingerer placed under arrest in the hospital, only to come good during the battle. However, Saul David writes in his book, Zulu: The Heroism and Tragedy of the Zulu War of 1879, that he was there as the hospital cook, subsequently as part of a small guard detail assigned to protect the patients. Saul David continues that far from the miscreant portrayed, Hook was actually a teetotaler, Methodist preacher, and model soldier. Further to this, he had been awarded good conduct pay shortly before the battle. His elderly daughters were so offended at the way their father had been depicted in the film that they walked out of the premiere. He was portrayed by English actor James Booth. S.M. Stirling's On the Oceans of Eternity fictionalises Hook's exploits. Hook can also be seen in a background scene in the Alan Moore-penned comic-series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, vol.I, issue 6. Related detail In his autobiography, punk singer Mark E. Smith claimed that Hook was an ancestor of his father, which led to the Smith family being invited as guests of honour to the Whitefield showing of Zulu. References External links Pte. Henry (Harry) Hook (biography, photos, memorial details) Location of grave and VC medal (Gloucestershire) Rorke's Drift (information within Frederick Hitch site) Military personnel from Gloucestershire British recipients of the Victoria Cross South Wales Borderers soldiers 1850 births 1905 deaths Burials in Gloucestershire 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis People from Forest of Dean District Anglo-Zulu War recipients of the Victoria Cross British Army personnel of the Anglo-Zulu War Royal Fusiliers soldiers Employees of the British Museum British Army recipients of the Victoria Cross Tuberculosis deaths in England English Methodists