Allan Wilson
Allan Wilson was a pioneer army major.
Wilson was born in 1856 in Scotland and apprenticed at a bank in Forchabers. He left for the Cape Colony, South Africa after the completion of his apprenticeship where he arrived and fought in the Zulu and First Boer Wars.
He left the army having attained the rank of Sergeant and became a trader and gold prospector at the same time earning a commission in the Basuto Police. He later joined the Bechuanaland Exploration Company as the company’s Chief Inspector and was sent to Fort Victoria (today’s Masvingo) in order to represent the BEC, as the senior officer of the Victoria Volunteers. He was promoted to the rank of Major.
Major Wilson is best known for his role in the Matabele War in 1893 and the Shangani Patrol. Allan Wilson was part of a column that went in pursuit of King Lobengula during his flee from Bulawayo on the 4th December 1893.
Allan Wilson went on ahead and got near King Lobengula’s group and the Shangani river came down in floods cutting him and his men off from reinforcements. The Ndebele warriors attacked and killed all 34 men. During the Rhodesian era he was considered a national hero and one of the founding fathers of Rhodesia. The date of his death was a Rhodesian national holiday. His remains were buried in the Matopo Hills, Matabeleland South and a Memorial Monument was erected in Matopo Hills in his memory and his men at the express wish of Cecil John Rhodes.
