The Shangani Patrol was a group of 34 white Rhodesian settlers killed in battle on the Shangani River in Zimbabwe in 1893. The incident achieved a lasting, prominent place in Rhodesian colonial history.

Following the abandonment of Bulawayo, a column of soldiers had been despatched by Leander Starr Jameson to attempt the capture of Lobengula, leader of the Ndebele nation. The column camped on the south bank of the Shangani river about 40km north-east of the village of Lupane on the evening of 3 December 1893. Late in the afternoon, a dozen men, under the command of Major Allan Wilson, were sent across the river to reconnoitre. Shortly afterwards, Wilson sent a message back to the laager to say that he had found the king, and requesting reinforcements.

The commander of the column, unwilling to set off across the river in the dark, sent 20 more men under the command of Henry Borrow, intending to send the main body of troops across the river the following morning. However, on their way to the river the next day, the column was ambushed by Ndebele fighters and delayed. In the meantime, Borrow, Wilson and their men were surrounded by a large number of Ndebele, and the Shangani river had suddenly risen in flood, making it impossible to cross. All 34 men were killed, but the inaccessibility of the spot and the risk of attack by the Ndebele made it impossible to recover the bodies until February 1894.

The remains of the Patrol members were eventually interred next to the bodies of Rhodes and Jameson at World's View in the Matobo Hills. The Shangani Patrol entered Rhodesian colonial history as part of the mythology of white conquest, with Wilson and Borrow hailed as national heroes.

Shangani Patrol is also the title of a 1970 film by David Millin, based on the novel A Time To Die, by Robert Carey, which dramatises the story of the Patrol.

See also

• Pioneer Column

History of Zimbabwe

Shangani Patrol