The battle to rehabilitate Zulu's Henry Hook after film portrayed him as drunken malingerer

But while Hollywood was right to show Private Henry Hook as a hero, the rest of his screen depiction was fiction.

In reality Private Hook was a teetotal lay preacher who had been awarded good conduct pay shortly before the battle that led to him winning the Victoria Cross.

Now his reputation is being restored after a campaign conducted by historians and backed by his former regiment.

Fiction: James Booth portraying reluctant hero Henry Hook in Zulu

Fact: Henry Hook was a model soldier who was awarded the Victoria Cross

Private Hook, played by James Booth in the 1964 film, was awarded the VC after he saved the lives of eight patients stranded at an Army hospital at Rorke's Drift during the Zulu war in 1879.

Major Tim Whedon, from the Royal Regiment of Wales, which incorporates Private Hook's regiment said: 'The regiment was delighted that a film about the heroism of Rorke's Drift was produced but disappointed that some of the portrayals were far from the truth.

'Henry Hook is an example of how a character was distorted to attract the film-goers when the story was captivating enough.

'As a regiment we would like to do what we can in helping to see that he is honoured in a fitting way.'

Following a three-year campaign a memorial erected to Private Hook at his grave, which had fallen into disrepair since the Sixties, has been restored.

The previously illegible leaded inscription was unveiled last week with the original words: 'If our time is come let us die manfully for our brethren's sake, and not have a cause for reproach against our glory.'

An official commemoration ceremony at his grave in Churcham, Gloucestershire, is due to be carried out next year.

Zulu, which starred Michael Caine and Stanley Baker, depicted the epic struggle by 150 British soldiers, most from the 24th Regiment of Foot (later the South Wales Borderers), against 4,000 Zulu warriors at a mission station at Rorke's Drift in Natal, South Africa.

Restored: Henry Hook's headstone at Churcham

Rehabilitated: The army has fought a long campaign to restore Private Hook's reputation

Private Hook, then aged 28, and Private John Williams desperately fought off the Zulus at a temporary hospital to bring eight patients into the British inner line of defence.

In the film, 'Hookie' is shown using his bayonet against the Zulus after running out of ammunition.

But he was described on screen as 'a thief, a coward, and an insubordinate barrack-room lawyer'. He was only in the hospital because he was malingering there as a patient.

The Gloucestershire-born soldier was also depicted as a Cockney. His family was devastated by his portrayal as a lazy soldier and his elderly daughter, Letitia Bunting, walked out of the film's premiere in disgust at her father's treatment.

In fact, according to reports her father was a model soldier. He received a scalp injury during the battle, on January 22-23, 1879, and a year later discharged himself from the Army.

Private Hook spent several decades after the war working at the British Museum. He was married twice and had two sons and four daughters.

When he died in 1905 aged 54 from tuberculosis he was remembered as a hero.

More than 50,000 lined the streets in Churcham as his coffin was escorted four miles to the churchyard.

Martin Everett, curator of the South Wales Borderers Museum in Brecon where Private Hook's VC is on display, said. 'It's refreshing to hear his final resting place has been put back in good order.

'There was no basis to the way he was portrayed at all. It was done just to make a good feature film. He was a good solid soldier.

'Private Hook was a Methodist lay preacher  -  a God-fearing person. He wasn't a drunkard.

'People see the film hundreds of times and believe that's what happened. It wasn't like that.

'He was awarded the Victoria Cross for saving lives. There's no greater thing that a man can do.'

Private Hook's great-grandson, Cyril Bunting, 53, said: 'I'm glad his story is being publicised in a positive rather than a negative light this time.

'My grandmother was so upset when she saw the film and the way he had been portrayed. That was not how she remembered him.'