Quartermaster Edward Bloomfield

Bloomfield, born in 1836, first enlisted in the Scots Fusilier Guards at the age of 11, as a drummer boy. He then served in the 2nd battalion 24th Regiment and reached the rank of sergeant-instructor of musketry. He was commissioned on 24th Sep 1873 and appointed quartermaster of the battalion. He seems to have taken his job too seriously during the battle of Isandhlwana because Smith-Dorrien, a survivor of the battle, wrote about how he had to break open the ammunition boxes and was admonished by QM Bloomfield who shouted; 'For heaven's sake, don't take that, man, for it belongs to our battalion.' Smith-Dorrien replied, 'Hang it all, you don't want a requisition now, do you?' The regimental records are quite clear about how Bloomfield died that day. He was trying to untie the ammunition boxes on the mules when he was killed, although the record fails to say whether he was shot or stabbed. Unfortunately the mules, with the boxes still on them, were seen 'plunging and kicking over the field, maddened with fear.'

Regimental details | Soldiers at Isandhlwana