Nqobile Bhebhe at Matopoes National Park
A Scottish tourist and teacher visiting Zimbabwe said she had never heard of Allan Wilson until she came to Matopoes National Park.
On Saturday, the Chronicle crew caught up with Marion Mac Allister who was part of a group of tourists visiting the national park.
Allan Wilson went down in a blaze of Frontier Partisan glory on December 4, 1893, when his Shangani Patrol was wiped out by a Matabele regiment in the forests along the Shangani River, during the First Matabele War in what would become Rhodesia.
The Patrol was a flying column detailed to pursue the fleeing Ndebele King Lobengula, whose regiments had been reaped by the deadly scythe of Maxim gun fire in two engagements. Wilson was a Scotsman who had migrated to South Africa and served in a variety of military and paramilitary capacities.
Wilson’s remains lie at the park.
