Film maker Peter Hall’s search for Monmouthshire relatives of a Rorke’s Drift survivor whose unmarked grave was ’re-dedicated’ in January has had a happy ending.

Kevin Connolly, the great grandson of Private John Connolly, contacted Peter after hearing about his search and Peter arranged for the family to lay a wreath at the grave, meet the craftsmen who had made the headstone and visit streets in Swansea where their ancestor and his family had lived.

Kevin, who lives in Bulwark, said his family had always known their relative had served at Rorke’s Drift but been unable to find the proof via army records.

Peter, who had been researching the story for the Glamorgan Archives, was delighted to solve the mystery. He told the Beacon in March that he’d been upset to discover that, although Pte Connolly had been given a military funeral he was buried in a pauper’s grave because his family couldn’t afford a headstone.

Neighbours at the time had apparently collected £6 to pay for a headstone but because Pte Connolly’s family were destitute they had given them the money instead.

More than a century later the grave, with a headstone provided by local stone masons Nurse and Payne, was re-dedicated in a service attended by a representative of the Royal Welsh Regiment and members of the Royal British Legion.

Pte Connolly had been in the hospital at Rorke’s Drift when it was attacked. He was dragged from the burning building by Pte Henry Hook, VC.

Their escape features in ’The Defence of Rorke’s Drift 1879’ painted by Alfonse de Neuville from eye-witness accounts of the action which saw 11 soldiers awarded VCs and five Distinguished Conduct Medals. The garrison was defended by 140 soldiers including 36 patients, outnumbered by 40 to 1.

Pte Connolly was invalided out of the army on a pension of one penny a day - later increased to tuppence. His health slowly deteriorated and he died on November 6th 1906 - his coffin carried to Danygraig Cemetery on a gun carriage.

When Connolly joined the Warwickshire Regiment (later South Wales Borderers) he said he was from Monmouthshire although he was actually from County Cork. He married Catherine Crowley in 1885 and the couple had seven sons - three of whom died as babies.

Kevin Connolly said his grandfather, Joe Connolly, called himself ’the seventh son of the seventh son’ and always claimed his father had fought the Zulus. They also knew his great-grandfather’s wife was a Crowley.

"It was amazing to find the proof for everything we’d been told," said Alison Connolly. "Kevin was really moved by it all. It’s just sad his father died two years ago because he’d have been so proud."

’The Defence of Rorke’s Drift 1879’ and (inset) the rededication ceremony