David Holmes has a chapter titled “The Chard Reports and Scientific Analysis” in a new book, A Handful of Heroes: Rorke’s Drift, published by Pen and Sword Books Limited in the UK.
The chapter shows how the statistical technique of Stylometry can help to resolve the dispute as to the authorship of what are known as The Chard Reports, originally attributed to Lieutenant John Chard of the Royal Engineers and penned after the heroic defense of the mission station at Rorke’s Drift, South Africa, during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. Historians are divided as to whether these reports are from Chard’s hand, whether they were written by other staff officers or whether they were stitched together by persons unknown to protect military reputations after the catastrophic British defeat at Isandlwana that same day. The reports were circulated by the world’s press, presented to Queen Victoria, discussed in the British Parliament and made the participants of the engagement at Rorke’s drift into household names and national heroes. Dr. Holmes’ statistical analysis involving multivariate techniques sheds new light on this fascinating authorship controversy.