He led the Shangani Patrol in search of King Lobengula and, on 4 December 1893, he and 36 of his men were cut off from the main column and killed by the Ndebele warriors.

In desperation and only hours before his defeat, Wilson sent Frederick Russell Burnham and two other scouts to seek reinforcements from the main column commanded by Major Patrick Forbes.

[3] In the play, based on some embellished facts, it is said that in the killing of Wilson and his thirty-three men, Lobengula lost 80 of his royal guard and another 500 Ndebele warriors.

Wilson was the last to fall and the wounded men of the Shangani Patrol loaded rifles and passed them to him during the final stages of the defence.

Once both of Wilson’s arms were broken and he could no longer shoot, he stepped from behind a barricade of dead horses, walked toward the Ndebele, and was stabbed with a spear by a young warrior.

Robert Baden-Powell in his Scouting for Boys advised scoutmasters to put on patriotic plays, giving "Wilson's Last Stand" as one of the suitable subjects.