(R.J. Constantine M.A.)

Orders by ordinary postal mail should be made via the postbox address. E-mail or telephone are of course the best ways of ordering.

Due to limits of space I do not keep all my books at the bookshop, not even those from my most recent catalog. So it is not always possible to arrive at the bookshop & expect to view an unsold book. To avoid disappointment check first with me by phone.

Note: The historical & biographical writing is protected by copyright & cannot be reproduced without the permission of the compiler.

I would like to extend a warm welcome to readers of my first list. As will be seen, this is not a conventional book catalog. I have tried to combine two elements not often brought together. The first is the purely commercial interest of moneygrubbing (at which I feel reasonably at home) & the second is the intellectual interest in the content of the books themselves. The intention is to hone my commercial reviews of the books with each successive catalog & eventually to collect all the reviews in an annotated Boer War bibliography. There are very few competent Boer War bibliographies – indeed Hackett’s recent publication is the only one I know of – and I feel that such a publication will go a long way towards filling an obvious vacuum.

A number of the books in this catalog are Afrikaans & it may seem puzzling to readers overseas that I have included so many. These books are not intended only for the S.A. market. I subscribe to the old ideal of bilingualism in the South African context, so I wish to promote the reading of Afrikaans literature & to point out to people how rich & varied the record of the Boer War is in Afrikaans. Afrikaans is, in addition, a relatively easy language to learn for speakers of a Germanic language like English.

I intend to be exclusively concerned with the Boer War for some time to come. After this one, catalogs on the Orange Free State, Transvaal & Natal will follow in turn (at quick & regular intervals I hope) & a fifth & final Boer War catalog will contain all unsold books & that material not identified with a province (multi-volume sets, P.O.W. accounts etc.).

I hope that this catalog will provide a little forum on book collecting & cataloging & on related issues. To this end I hope to publish letters responding to some of the issues & subjects raised & touched on here. A case in point is the autobiography of Manie Maritz (item no. 47). Maritz’s is an important Boer War account, but it also happens to be by far the worst & most detailed anti-Semetic text ever to appear in this country. The title, My Lewe en Strewe, for instance, is a deliberate aping of Hitler’s autobiography. Along with many other readers I have never read the anti-Semitic sections of Maritz’s book (and never shall), but since it forms by far the larger part of the autobiography, does the sale & promotion of the book not contribute directly to anti-Semitism? I would be particularly interested to hear the views of any readers of this catalog on this matter. All letters intended for publication should be short, should not be abusive or congratulatory & should be sent via e-mail only.

I am looking for unpublished, original manuscript material to sell on commission. Memoirs, diaries, letters, photograph albums & ephemera would be most welcome.

R.J. Constantine.

The album divides into two parts: the annotated photographs & the original type- and manuscript material.

The Photographs: These are individual & group portraits of members of Boer commandos imprisoned at Graaff-Reinet between 1901 & 1902. These men had all been captured during the guerilla operations in the Cape Colony. A key clearly identifies each man. Many of the men were photographed under sentence of death & while awaiting execution. There are revealing individual portraits of Commandants Gideon Scheepers & Hans Lotter. The photograph of Scheepers was taken on the 17^th January 1902, a day before his execution, while Lotter was photographed early in September 1901, shortly after his capture – his shirt is shown stained with numerous blood spots from a wound he sustained. Five group portraits portray 93 of Lotter’s men, including one of his officers (D.C. Breed) who was also executed in October 1901. This is the only photograph of Breed known to exist, but copies of it have been reproduced elsewhere. Three under-age boys (all shown & identified) were sentenced to be flogged.

Scheepers’ patrol of about 18 men under the command of Lieut. Isak Liebenberg (which was captured at Onbedacht in the Camdeboo in mid-1901) all appear. No fewer than ten of these men were executed in various Cape Colony towns: Liebenberg himself, Van Vuuren, Olwagen, Toy (a Swede), Pfeiffer, Van Rensburg, Nel, Roux, Veenstra (a Hollander) & Fourie. Lieutenant Liebenberg, eighteen years of age, was hanged at Aliwal North in January 1902. The small group portrait, in which he appears with ostrich feather in upturned hat, is an excellent study (though very slightly damaged). This photograph has never been published & may be the only one in existence.

Also featured in the group photographs are Lieutenant Mike van Wyk, executed in the veld near Colesberg on the 12^th September 1901, and the celebrated Field-Cornet Willie Louw, shot in the same town on November. A wounded Max Teinert is shown with arm in sling. A German, he was one of the Five Swimmers who escaped from Ceylon & made their way back to the Boer forces in South Africa. Also shown is an effeminate-looking John Momberg, formerly of Scheepers’ commando, who was pardoned & in return gave crucial (but false) evidence against his former leader.

The thirteen photographs portray almost two hundred men – some in various stages of distress & anxiety – photographed outside their prison cells. A number of them – especially Lotter’s men - are wounded & sport bandages around the head & arms in slings. Often they are clad in the travel-stained clothes in which they were captured. The photographs of Scheepers & Lotter are much larger, showing more physical detail than the cropped versions which are usually seen. The set of photographs as a whole, in their grim realism & unforgettable detail, capture (as few books can) the heroic as well as the tragic & deeply divisive nature of the Boer War. Portraying at least 15 men shortly to be executed under martial law, they are both a prelude & a monument to the extravagent blood-letting engaged in by Captain Edwin Tennant. This man, chief Intelligence Officer at Graaff-Reinet, was the scourge of the Republican-led rebellion in the Cape Colony. He died in a motor-car accident in Johannesburg shortly after the war.

The Diary: Kept by Commandant Gideon Scheepers between the 1^st October 1901 and the 18^th January 1902, the day he was executed just outside Graaff-Reinet. The first few entries record his experiences on commando while critically ill. Compelled to surrender on the 10^th October, he was nursed back to health at the British military hospitals of Beaufort West, Noupoort and Graaff-Reinet. His trial under martial law commenced at Graaff-Reinet on the 18^th December 1901. He was visited in prison by General John French, British commander in the Cape Colony. Sentenced to death on the 17^th January 1902, his sentence was immediately confirmed by Lord Kitchener & carried out the next day.

Scheepers’ diary records his thoughts and experiences in the various hospitals & prison as well as the events of his trial. It remains a South African historical document of first-rank importance.

Three translations are known to have been made of Gideon Scheepers’ diary (see Preller, Scheepers se Dagboek p. 61). This is undoubtedly the first & earliest of them all, since it was made in the martial law offices of the Intelligence Department at Graaff-Reinet, during late 1901 & January 1902. Tennant ordered the translation (Scheepers’ original Dutch diary was in his hands between the 9^th and the 22^nd December) & it was done by John Gregorowski, clerk & translator in the department. A copy of this first translation was retained by Tennant & it passed (via "friendly hands from Graaff-Reinet" – see Preller p. 62) in late 1902 into the hands of the Transvaal historian Gustav Preller. It seems therefore obvious that when Tennant passed the diary onto Gregorowski for translation, the latter made two hand-written copies – one for his chief and one for himself. Comparison of the hand-writing of this diary & the English copy thought to be in Pretoria will clarify the matter. But this is not important. What is important is the fact that this translation of the diary is authentic, is the first translation made from the original Dutch & is a faithful version of that original. It was started either in December 1901, and completed after Scheepers’ death, or done in total after his death. The possibility also exists that this album in total, the Gregorowski Album, was the "Scheepers file" referred to by Major Shute, commandant of Graaff-Reinet, in his diary (see Shute manuscript, Men’s Club, Graaff-Reinet). This possibility arises due to the comprehensive nature of the album & the large number of Scheepers items contained within it. Apart from the diary, the album contains personal letters, proclamations, a pass and photographs, all with a direct bearing on Scheepers. Is there likely to have been yet another "file" with a duplication of Scheepers material? This seems unlikely. The Coldstream Guards archives contains no such thing. In addition, Shute’s diary has an original Scheepers letter (written to a Graaff-Reinet newspaper editor but never passed on by the martial law authorities). This presence of this letter in the Shute diary begs the obvious question. If another "Scheepers file" existed (other than the Gregorowski Album) why was this very important letter not kept in that file? On balance it appears to me then that the (this) Gregorowski album & the "Scheepers file" referred to by Shute are likely to be one & the same thing. I have accepted this as such, although it cannot be regarded to be so beyond all doubt. The whereabouts of the other Gregorowski copy (the one obtained by Preller in late 1902) is not known now, but if extant it may be in the Pretoria Archives.

An interesting aspect regarding the survival of the original Dutch diary – and, indeed, of the first English translations - is that these documents could not have survived without Tennant’s approval. This anomalous situation leads one directly to a paradox: Tennant’s aggressive prosecution of Scheepers, the compilation of the charge-sheet & (in particular) the execution, were all designed to destroy Scheepers’ credibility & standing. His execution was only a part of the Imperial reaction to his Republican-inspired activities in the Cape Colony. Behind the charge-sheet which Tennant - who had been one of Jameson’s raiders in 1895, and remained an irreconcilable while imprisoned at Pretoria - formulated against Scheepers, was the powerful propaganda voice of British Imperialism itself. Having contributed significantly towards Scheepers’ physical destruction, why then did Tennant not attack the ideas for which Scheepers had lived? His diary carries after all a powerful republican message, which continued to influence political events in South Africa for a long period after his death. How then can the paradox be explained, that Tennant willingly released the diaries, enabling them thereby to enter the political bloodstream of the country? He did so, I believe, because Tennant & Scheepers made an agreement that if the diary contained no reference to the sensational poisoning incident (see R.J. Constantine, The Poisoning of Gideon Scheepers, Cape Town, 1998), then it would not be suppressed or destroyed. The only reference Scheepers made to the possible causes of his illness was in letters to his mother (see Preller pp. 177 &179) where he stated once that he suffered from "maagkoors" (gastric fever), & once that he had received a chill crossing a swollen river & that complications had set in. But these were red herrings & can be disregarded as possible causes of his illness. The contradictory "explanations" were a coded message to his family to believe neither. The fact of his having been through "deep water" is a clue to the suppressed cause of the illness. The diary does in fact not make any reference to the poisoning. Due to this, Tennant also honored the agreement after Scheepers’ death. This explains why the diary survived even when it made negative comments about Tennant himself. Although there is no proof at all for this depiction of events, I believe that they happened & that Scheepers knew that an agreement of this kind was the only safeguard he could make to ensure the survival of his diary. He knew from when he arrived at Graaff-Reinet in December 1901 that he was doomed & from that point on one of his main concerns was the preservation of the diary.

There are five letters, four written by Scheepers & one by President Steyn. They are all originals or carbon copies, typed in black ink on thin white typing paper.

Scheepers’ Death-Cell Letters: These were written to his family (mother, brothers & sisters – his father was still on commando), to General de Wet & President Steyn, Johanna Scheepers (his fiancee), and to a girl friend of De Rust, Aberdeen, named Maria van den Berg. They are all in translated form, in English. The original Dutch versions were destroyed in 1902.

1. To his mother, brothers & sisters.

The mutilated remains of this letter (the martial law authorities called it an "extract"), were sent on to Scheepers’ mother & that letter was published by Preller (pp.186-7). It was only a fragment of the letter which appears here in the album in a full & unabbreviated form for the first time. The body of this letter consists of 760 words, while the version which survived had only 143 words. The complete version of this letter was thought by all to have been irretrievably lost for almost 100 years. (see Preller p. 186).

In this letter Scheepers does not confine himself to family matters, but addresses also aspects of his own career. The war forms a constant backdrop: "My deeds and what I have done in the Orange Free State speak for themselves. Therefore, be comforted, my darlings, and hope that my dear father may be spared and that you may all meet again. How thankful we must all be that our house has been spared so long from that Death, which is so unavoidable, and which we must all taste." He requested a privileged status for his fiance, Johanna Scheepers: "Please also comfort poor Johanna, who has my best wishes, and let her always be considered and treated as your own child. She is worthy of being loved and of making a good marriage, which I wish her with all my heart."

J.F. Keelan, clerk of the Graaff-Reinet commandant (Col. Shute), wrote as follows to Scheepers’ mother in 1904, describing the translation of this letter: "I learned there was a letter in the office from Commandant Scheepers, addressed to you, and as it had to be translated I presume it was in Dutch … the room which Captain McCall and I worked in was so situated that anything which took place in the side room in which the letter was read by one Gregorowski to Captain Tennant, the contents of it were heard without effort practically the same as if it were being read aloud in the room at which I was seated at my desk. I will spare you the "brutal" comments of the gallant Captain and will content myself by saying that brutal does not convey any idea of their nature. Your son’s letter was indescribably beautiful and collected, considering the fact that it was written on the eve of his execution. Gregorowski tranlated it slowly as one does in giving a translation, and I will endeavour to reproduce the gems of its composition ... through it all was running the expression of a brave man writing with the tenderness which only a good son might be expected to speak to a good mother for the last time in his life." (Preller, pp. 194-5)

Of great interest is the fact that Keelan was suspected of being a Boer spy by Major Shute & was sent back to Cape Town (where he was an employee of the Cape Civil Service) after only a few days in Graaff-Reinet. It does indeed appear that Keelan was pro-Boer in his sympathies, for he ended his letter to Scheepers’ mother (dated 7^th May, 1904) by saying that on the day of the execution "your son gave a key-note to South African nationality". The Boer War in the Cape Colony had many of the features of civil war, with a number of English-speakers (such as Olive Schreiner & her husband) siding with the Boers, and one sees in Keelan’s sentiments another example of this. He gave his address as "Waldorf House, Warrenville Terrace, Glynn Street, Cape Town".

Perhaps the most important of Scheepers’ letters, although (at approx. 330 words) shorter than the one to his family. This letter naturally never reached its destination & the other copie(s) were destroyed in 1902. The existence of this letter was however known & it has been searched for ever since the end of the war (Preller, p. 186). "I am satisfied", states Scheepers, " to follow the other brave and noble Africanders, who have already sacrificed their lives, and wish you to bring to the notice of the officers, in order that they may know in what position they stand, that the burning of houses is considered "Arson", shooting of [Africans], who spy in plain clothes, "Murder", driving prisoners on foot as "Barbarous Acts Contrary to the Customs of War", and blowing up of Railway lines or firing upon trains as "Attempted Murder", because His Majesty’s Subjects are thereby exposed to danger. These were the accusations against me, of which I was found guilty, and for which I am to be shot to-morrow … Fight on ye Brave, and do all that is right in the eyes of the Righteous and of God. All these things, and still worse were done in our country, and now that we do likewise it is not tolerated".

3. To Johanna C. Scheepers, his fiancee.

Johanna was his childhood sweetheart, from Middelburg district, Transvaal. She was the daughter of ‘Groot’ Koos Scheepers, a prominent burgher of the Middelburg commando who was killed at Dundee in the early stages of the Boer War. The letter to her consists of approximately 350 words. Scheepers addressed his letter to her to the Middelburg Refugee Camp, Transvaal. But she never received it.

Scheepers was associated with a number of Boer girls during his short career in the artillery of the two republics between 1895 and 1901. There was a girlfriend named Andrews in Pretoria in 1897. He had good cause to remember the girls of Lindley, who "smothered him with kisses" on his entry into that O.F.S. village in mid-1900. Lettie Geldenhuys never forgot him after his brief visit to her farm in the northern Free State in October 1900. There was Martha Joubert of Aberdeen, with whom he maintained a correspondence during 1901. But nevertheless he assures Johanna Scheepers "that my heart beats only for you." He leaves his furniture to her as well as his box of photographs & papers stored at Mrs Fane’s boarding-house in Bloemfontein. He assures her that his bequest "comes from a true heart with the warmest love to you." Scheepers assures her of his innocence and also expresses the hope that "you get another one who will suit you more and will make you more happy than I had in my mind". He closes by writing "Farewell, all kind friends, your loving John till death."

4. To Miss Maria van den Berg, a girlfriend.

This short letter, the last he wrote, was written two hours before sunrise (when he expected to be executed). Rather predictably, it was sent to a girl he had met in the colony, and consists of 130 words. In an undisguised gesture of admiration, Scheepers left his hat to her: "I left my clothing with Mr. Auret and shall ask that they must give you my hat, but don’t ask for it now, wait until things are more quiet." The obvious warmth Scheepers felt for this girl & her family is indicative of the attitudes of many towards the Boer commandos in the farming districts of the colony: "Oh, I should like to see you all again. Your dear father was in town here, but was not allowed to see me. I gave this note to Mr. Murray to send it to you. How I thank you and dear Mother and Father for all the good done to me." He signs his letter off as "Your loving brother, G.J. Scheepers."

This letter of approximately 400 words was written in the veld (northern O.F.S.) on the 24^th August 1901. An original Dutch version appears, as well as an English translation. Steyn addresses the letter to "Assistant Chief Commandant Kritzinger, and all the other Commandants of the Orange Free State Military Forces in the Cape Colony." This letter was written immediately after the arrival of Commandant Wynand Malan & Judge Henry Hugo. These two Cape commando leaders arrived in Steyn’s laager on a political mission which was a sequel to the execution of Piet Kloppert in Burghersdorp in the previous month. The execution, the first in the Cape, sent shock waves throughout the Boer forces & resulted in something of a military crisis. Scheepers subsequently proposed a political mission to the O.F.S. which would attempt to establish the Cape rebels as legitimate belligerents in the struggle. Malan’s mission was extremely ill-advised however. This is immediately apparent in the content of Steyn’s letter, for none of the steps he proposed to remedy the crisis in the Cape were effective & few came to fruition.

Steyn’s preamble states that the O.F.S. & Z.A.R.’s "enemies having forgotten the murder at Slachtersnek, now wish to take vengeance for their incapacity to subdue the two republics on some of the Colonial Brethren, who, impelled by feelings of patriotism, have thrown in their lot with us, in that they have done to death, in a cowardly manner, some of these Colonials, which they had taken prisoners." The governments of the two republics had decided, Steyn wrote, "in accordance with the method indicated by International Law, to acknowledge the Colonial Brethren as a third factor in the struggle, as soon as they are sufficient in numbers." Secondly, Steyn stated that General de la Rey had been "delegated by both republics to act as commander-in-chief of all our forces in the Cape Colony", and to take up that commission as soon as he saw fit. Finally, Steyn stated that both governments had undertaken to "consider no Peace negotiations, wherein the interests of the colonial brethren are not maintained to their fullest extent".

The English version of this letter was almost certainly typed out at Graaff-Reinet during Scheepers’ trial, while the Dutch version may be an original "from the veld" & the O.F.S. government laager. The Dutch letter was typed on different paper to the English, and has no watermark, while the English letter paper has an "Excelsior Extra Soft & Fine" watermark. In addition, the Dutch letter is pasted down, while the English letter is loose in the volume.

This was written near Senekal on the 24^th August 1901 – the same day as Steyn’s letter & consists of approximately 500 words. It was translated from a Dutch original at the time of Scheepers’ trial. This proclamation & the Steyn letter were in all likelihood used at the trial, either by the defence or the prosecution. De Wet intended his proclamation to empower Cape commandants to use hard-hitting measures against elements of the local population who betrayed their movements to the authorities, for "it cannot be tolerated that persons can be peaceful inhabitants one day, and be called upon the next to do duty as belligerents." To remedy this situation De Wet proposed three measures. First, any person "not belonging to His Majesty’s troops" who delivered, or caused to be delivered, horses or provisions to any British military post would be subject to a heavy fine. Second, any such person who furnished information of Boer commando movements would be subject to a fine. The third point was the most important: "Any person spying on the Federal Forces shall be immediately brought before a Court Martial, consisting of a Superior Officer and two others. In the event of his being found guilty he shall be dealt with with the utmost rigor of the law." By this was meant execution. This final point was the most far reaching for the Cape Colony since it attempted to empower commandos there to shoot spies. Conferring as it did a semi-legality on such proceedings, it encouraged the commandos to engage in these practices. But since the martial law courts never accepted De Wet’s authority on the matter this proclamation never served to protect men who resorted to the extreme measure of executing spies. Such men, like Scheepers, were charged with "murder" and many were executed.

These forms, both pasted down in the album, were special permits which entitled the bearer (J. Gregorowski, Intelligence) "to pass the examining guard on the Murraysburg Road for the purpose of attending the execution of the condemned prisoner Gideon Jacobus Scheepers who is sentenced to be shot. The execution will take place on Saturday the 18^th instant at 5.30 a.m. All persons desiring to be present must have passed the examining guard at 5.15 a.m. No persons will be allowed to pass the barrier after that hour. Absolute silence must be preserved." It was dated at Graaff Reinet on the 17^th January 1902. In the event Scheepers execution was delayed due to a polo game & he was shot late in the afternoon of the same day. His body was then secretly removed from its grave & buried in an unmarked grave in the bed of the Sundays River valley. It has never been found.

The other pass form gave access to an execution on the Middelburg Road on the 18^th August 1901. The condemned prisoners in this instance were Jan (van) Rensburg, Petrus J. Fourie, Lodewijk F.S. Pfeiffer. W.H. Harrison of the Coldsteam Guards described this execution in his book A Socialist in South Africa: "A particularly revolting incident happened in the execution of the three who were shot. This was, that the firing parties were a body of ten men, five with ball, and five with blank cartridges. After the word "present" which brings the rifle to the shoulder, one of them ‘pulled off" before the command "fire" was given, and the bullet blew off the top of one man’s head."

As with Scheepers, an attempt was made to disguise these men’s gravesite: "Three were shot and buried not very far from where my squad of prisoners were erecting fortifications, and the latter asked the next morning to be shown the spot where they were buried. I took them and showed them but there was no mound left – we used to level it off as you would bury a dog. A few days afterwards it was found that someone had put a ring of stones round the places of their burial."

Allen was born in Wimbledon, Surrey, England. He came to South Africa in 1896 and between 1898 and February 1904 had a photographic studio at Graaff-Reinet. He took a photograph of Scheepers in the court, the only person who was permitted to do so. The lens there was a Cooke-triplet and the camera a Watson. Allen requested permission from the martial law authorities to photograph Scheepers’ execution, but this was strictly forbidden. He nevertheless accompanied the military procession to the execution ground three miles out of Graaff-Reinet. Standing between the two rows of guards with a small Brownie camera under his coat, Allen had just enough space to photograph the execution without being seen by the officers. He took three photographs there. None of these photographs are present in this album but they are all published in Preller’s book. Allen also photographed Generals Piet Kritzinger & Wynand Malan after capture, so that he was the major photographic chronicler of the Boer guerilla war in the Midlands. He took all the photographs in this album. Nothing is known of his career after 1904, but he was still active in 1942, when he passed through Wepener, O.F.S., staying in a hotel there. He presumably died in S.A. sometime after the Second World War.

John Victor Emile Gregorowski was born in Somerset East, Cape Colony, in 1882. During the Boer War he was a clerk & translator in the Martial Law offices at Graaff-Reinet, working closely under Captain Edwin Tennant. He worked as a bank clerk & died in Cape Town in 1922. He was then living at 26 Brunswick Road, Tamboerskloof.

Scheepers was born on a farm near Middelburg, Transvaal, in 1878. As a boy he was destined for the church but his family could not afford to send him to university. He joined the Z.A.R. Artillery in Pretoria in 1895. In 1898 he was transferred to the O.F.S. Artillery with the rank of Sergeant-Major. His instructions were to establish a heliographic section in the Field Telegraph department of the Free State Artillery. After war broke out in 1899 he served on the Western Front at Magersfontein & during the Siege of Kimberley. Here he developed a taste for scouting activities. Promoted first to the temporary rank of Lieutenant, in March 1900 General De Wet made him a Captain in the fledgling Orange Free State Scout Corps. As commander he succeeded Captain Charlie Fichardt, who was wounded & captured in March. Scheepers served throughout 1900 under De Wet’s command. His outstanding scouting proved to be of very great value. He located the huge stores depot at Rooiwal in June, which De Wet then destroyed, and in late August, acting on De Wet’s instructions, he launched a number of attacks against the railway line in the vicinity of Vredefort. In October De Wet sent him to the southern Free State to spearhead the Boer invasion of that region. The invasion of the south was a farther extension of De Wet’s great counter-offensive, which he began in late March 1900. Operating under Generals Hertzog & Fourie, Scheepers contributed towards the successful remobilization of the southern Orange Free State, as a springboard for invasion into the Cape Colony. De Wet made contact with him again in November but sent him on ahead into the Cape in December. Under the command of General Kritzinger, Scheepers entered the Cape on Dingaan’s Day, at the head of his small commando. This event heralded the second full-scale invasion of the Cape.

Promoted to Commandant in April 1901, Scheepers operated in the Cape Colony for ten months, mainly in the dangerous & volatile Midlands districts. At its height his commando numbered over 250 men & he inflicted tremendous material damage to the British forces. Constantly attacking isolated outposts & towns, the railways, and burning down official buildings, the effect on Imperial morale was no less marked. In August, while near Ladismith, an undercover British agent joined his commando. This agent, a Boer named Hugo, was a brother of a close friend of his, Commandant Judge Henry Hugo (then absent with Malan in the O.F.S.). While on the Kamanassie River near Oudtshoorn in late September, this agent successfully administered poison to him, in a glass of wine. Compelled to surrender (on the 10^th October) due to the debilitating effects of the poison, Scheepers was nursed back to health in military hospitals at Beaufort West & Noupoort. In December he was transferred to the prison at Graaf-Reinet, and commenced his trial under martial law. Found guilty on most of the 30 charges brought against him (mostly of "murder" & "arson"), Scheepers was executed outside Graaff-Reinet on the 18^th January 1902. Due largely to the manner in which his surrender was brought about, his body was immediately removed by the military authorities & secretly reburied somewhere in the Sundays River valley. It has never been found.

The Gregorowski album is unquestionably the most important collection of Scheepers items which will ever be found. The three strengths of the album are the photographs, the diary & the letters. It includes items (such as the letter to Steyn & De Wet) for which people have been searching for almost 100 years. The items concetrate on an individual who has acquired a legendary status in the pantheon of Boer War martyrs & heroes. In addition, Scheepers star continues to rise & as the centenary of the Boer War draws near, so there is accelerated interest in his short but eventful life. In some instances the material contained here includes crucial biographical information which is available nowhere else. It is not without its relevance to the broader study of the Boer War (in particular in the Cape Colony) and indeed to the general course of South African history in the first three quarters of this century.

Aberdeen, "quiet and peaceful like all the smaller inland towns", was undisturbed by the initial stages of the Boer War. But, as the conflict began to deepen in the republics, and first Roberts’ and then Kitchener’s scorched earth policies took hold, so Cape Boer opinion began to radicalize & align itself with the republican cause. By December 1900, the Cape Times was able to report, in curiously apposite language, that "the Colony is hurrying to the brink of the inferno". In Aberdeen itself in late 1900 "older people began to speak of a campaign against the entire Afrikanerdom" (J.A. Smith, Ek Rebelleer, p. 2) In early December 1900 Dr T. Te Water, Afrikaner Bond Member of the Legislative Assembly for Graaff-Reinet, gave a powerful & hard-hitting pro-Boer speech at Aberdeen. "A vile conspiracy had been entered into", he said, "fed by a propaganda of lies and libel by enemies of the Dutch. The greatest indignation existed throughout the land owing to the manner in which war had been waged against women and children: the burning down of houses, and the shameful treatment of exiled women" (Wallace, Unofficial Despatches, pp. 293-4) This passionate address raised the political temperature to fever-pitch. It pushed Pieter Wolfaardt (later executed) into rebellion & possibly scores of other young men including Carel van Heerden. Immediately after this speech the Graaff-Reinet Advertiser reported that "the minds of the Dutch are being excited to such an extent that the situation is being rendered positively dangerous … Sedition is openly spoken everywhere (in the up-country districts) and threats are made that the flame will yet burst forth in this colony."

The experience of loyalists in Aberdeen was of course very different to that of the Boers or, for that matter, the coloured & African communities. The rule throughout the central & eastern parts of the Cape Colony was that the loyalist section of the European community comprised mainly English families, in addition to a sizeable minority of Boers. Wherever they were found in the Cape Colony, outside of the coastal cities & parts of the Eastern Cape, the panicky loyalists were in a minority. They looked to the British army to shore up & entrench their position & were enthusiastic if occasionally neurotic supporters of the Imperial cause. In a broader sense the English made fine settlers, and were usually highly energetic in attempting to reproduce the various "home" institutions, even in this dust-blown & far-flung corner of the Empire.

A large majority of the African & coloured communities were, similarly, enthusiastic supporters of the British army. The reasons for this were threefold. Firstly, and most importantly, coloured & black labour was extremely well paid. There was a high premium on it, which was paid willingly, since the war in South Africa could not be successfully waged without the support of a vast army of skilled scouts, spies & guides, wagon drivers, grooms, camp servants, labourers & washerwomen – people who were hardy & knew the country well & required few comforts. Secondly, service in the army & with the forces provided the opportunity for these communities to confront their masters on a more equal footing, since in many instances their masters were Boers who had maintained a rigid caste hierarchy. Thirdly, these communities hoped that their loyalty would be rewarded & that short-term economic gains would translate also into political gains.

In December 1901 a Boer commando under General Piet Kritzinger invaded the Cape Colony, and Aberdeen was quickly brought within the orbit of hostilities for the first time. Kritzinger’s commando subdivided into a number of smaller units, and on the 15^th January 1901 a composite force of 30 men from the commandos of Captains Gideon Scheepers & Willem Fouche (but under the latter’s command) occupied the town. Aberdeen was undefended & had not been garrisoned during the war. Fouche commandeered 80 horses in the town, requisitioned freely from the banks and shops, and threw open the jail, releasing the "undesirables" imprisoned there. Thirty-six men immediately went into rebellion, most of these ending up in Scheepers’ commando. Among them was a powerfully built local harness-maker named Carel van Heerden, who would later make a name for himself in the guerilla operations. Having satisfied his immediate requirements, Fouche moved west along the Beaufort West road & rejoined Kritzinger & Scheepers. British forces arrived in Aberdeen on the afternoon of the same day & immediately began to fortify the koppie outside the town. From this point on there was a permanent garrison (the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment) in the town until the end of the war. Strict martial law announcements were made & various prominent inhabitants imprisoned without trial.

In late February 1901 the commandos fired again on Aberdeen, then on the 5^th March Scheepers made a determined attack. He penetrated into the town & to begin with this attack followed the pattern of the first one in January. The 14 martial-law prisoners in the jail were released and promptly joined the commando. The police station was occupied & another 7 townsmen went into rebellion & enlisted. On this occasion Scheepers met a young woman named Martha Joubert, with whom he was to maintain a correspondence for some time. Scheepers hurriedly commandeered all the horses he could find, but before the situation could develop any farther the recently formed Town Guard launched a counter attack. This predominantly black unit crept unseen along the main water furrow, then opened up a withering fire from there and from the grounds of the Dutch Reformed church. A number of local schoolboys were attempting to get into a position from where they could join the commando, but were compelled to take shelter from the volleys of rifle fire. The commando hurriedly exited from the town, galloping in the direction of Murraysburg.

After this daring attack Aberdeen was converted into an armed camp. All over at intersections sandbagged forts were erected surrounded by barbed wire. A network of barbed wire obstacles was erected right around the town. The local garrison & Town Guard were strengthened & supplemented by a Defence Force. The administration of martial law became harsher & more antagonistic towards the Boer population. The jail filled up once again with local Boers arrested & detained without trial. "Without any warning", wrote a fourteen-year-old Boer boy, "armed khakis stormed into the houses of peaceful inhabitants. Everything was turned inside out at the point of a bayonet with the excuse that they were searching for Boers who were perhaps being sheltered by the inhabitants." Local coloureds & Africans sided with the British & many joined the local forces. This led to tension and conflict between the Boer and coloured populations also.

On the 6^th March a British column, guided by local Aberdeen loyalists, went in pursuit of Scheepers & Fouche. However the Boers ambushed the column, killing 7 British soldiers & capturing 60. Four of the guides were also captured, including Captain P. Rubidge, commander of the Aberdeen Town Guard, whom Scheepers forced to take the oath of neutrality. The Boer commando had spent a comfortable night on the 5^th camped at Corndale, Rubidge’s farm. Before leaving the men trashed the farmhouse (see the photographs in the album). Rubidge enlisted the assistance of a local farmer named Probart & made his way back to Aberdeen in the latter’s buggy (see photograph). The commando trekked in the direction of Murraysburg, but found that town occupied by Col. Colenbrander.

In June the Boer population of Aberdeen heard that Commandant Scheepers was in the Camdeboo and twenty boys and young men decided to run away and join him. Among them was Johannes Smith, fourteen years old. The plan was to creep through the barbed wire on the northern side of the town, in groups of four and five, at eight o’clock in the evening of the 10^th June. The tins on the wire alerted the guards, who fired blindly into the night, but nine rebels got through and sprinted for the drift three miles away. The following day they joined Scheepers’ commando. The other eleven turned back when the firing began & returned to their homes.

For the duration of the war Aberdeen continued on in the harsh grip of martial law, with the increasingly bitter civil conflict escalating all around it. On the 18^th May 1902, with the end of the war in sight, a last desperate attack was launched on the town. Commandant Carel van Heerden, a native of Aberdeen who had gone into rebellion after being freed from the local jail earlier in the year, led this attack. He had recently returned to the vicinity of Aberdeen with General Wynand Malan’s commando. Van Heerden’s commando was very short of horses and at krygsraads he had been pressing very hard for an attack on Aberdeen, where there was a large horse herd. Malan & Commandant Willem Fouche thought such an attack would be far too costly, but so insistent were Van Heerden’s demands that they feared being labelled as cowards, and Malan reluctantly consented to a call for volunteers being made.

A hundred men immediately stepped forward. The attack was launched toward midnight but the defences had been alerted & were well prepared. As the Boers filtered into the town in the direction of the horse camp a tremendous rifle fight broke out, with the garrison firing also from above, from entrenched positions on the flat-roofed houses. Thousands of rounds were poured into the streets and directed against the buildings, gouging out large holes in the stone walls. Van Heerden captured 54 horses but was himself killed in the street fighting, as were two other Boers. The commandant’s body, stripped of its trousers, was laid out in a shed (see photographs of his funeral), where some of the loyalists (including a local Boer woman), directed curses & kicks at it. Van Heerden is buried at Aberdeen. There is a fine monument over his grave. His comrades who fell with him lie close nearby & Aberdeen today has one of the finest & best kept Boer war cemeteries in the country. And so the war ended with this polarized Karoo community in an exhausted state & licking its many wounds. So much for the historical background of the photograph album.

This album was the property of Dollie Luckhoff, and is dated Aberdeen, 15^th August 1901. She was a young girl aged approximately sixteen in 1901, and living in that town. The photographer has not been identified, but F. Scholtz of Darling Street, Aberdeen, did a studio portrait of Dollie Luckhoff (also in the album) & it is possible that he took some of the photographs. That would not however explain why there are so many casual portraits of Dollie & friends. Scholtz – if indeed he was the photographer – was capable of being an outstanding chronicler of the scene around him. At his best he portrays a finesse & a technical proficiency that one usually recognizes only in photographers (of this period) of the quality of Arthur Elliot.

The album divides broadly into two sections: those photographs (the majority) dealing with the war, and those not. Altogether about 135 photographs deal with military activities in & around Aberdeen or are portraits of people taken during the war years. It is not certain when the album was begun but one caption reads "Cecil in hospital June 1901". A majority of the photographs certainly date from 1901, but some of the views may continue on into 1902.

A number of clear preliminary views portray the endless cavalcade of columns trekking through the town, with the public buildings forming the background. The identified views include two of Scobell’s column, three of Parsons’, five of Haig, six of Doran (one caption reads "first time"), two of Grenfell, one of Wyndham & one of Atherton. A caption identifies Parsons’ column as 735 strong with 4 guns, and consisting of 1 Squadron of the 6^th Dragoon Guards, the 65^th Company of the Imperial Yeomanry & the Sharpshooters. Scobell’s column, credited as having "captured Lotter & commando" is given as 1,115 strong with 5 guns & consisting of the 9^th Lancers & the Cape Mounted Rifles. Haig’s column is given as 600 strong. Seven of these 20 views (mentioned above) show the guns, two of Parsons’ howitzer ("This gun was fired at Omdurman"), Scobell’s 15 pounder gun (shown twice), and one of "Col. Haig’s guns" & two of Doran’s – one in the distance & another of a pom-pom. Two miniature photographs (4x4 cms) show "an afternoon tea" & "a camp shave" out in the veld with Doran’s column. The quality of these 20 photographs is good, most showing travel-stained & weary men returning to base after gruelling operations out in the veld in the winter of 1901. A number of other photographs show unnamed convoys passing through & at rest in the town.

Two sandbagged forts are shown, one in the veld & one in the town – a "police sanger built by I.L.H.". There are five views of the police sanger, including one of it being rebuilt (possibly after the attack in 1902). One scene shows a member of the garrison (3rd Loyal North Lancs) signalling from a high wall, with another one of the "S.O. speaking to Col. Sawyer" through a megaphone from the same high roof. Troops are shown drawing ration wood, C.W. Logie holding a military sale (sheep) & there are a number of parade ground scenes (on the market square), one in which the "3^rd L.N.Lancs present arms to His Majesty the King", Lieut C.J. Wilson leading the parade. Another of these scenes shows Major Downes leading the national anthem, while another is of Col Sawyer & staff arriving on horseback, with expectant garrison & townspeople drawn up at attention. The garrison camp appears entrenched behind sandbags & barbed wire, and Col Haig’s column camped in the town. Two photographs portray members of 5^th Lancers (in Doran’s column) parading on horseback. The funeral of Lieut Jansen of Warren’s Mounted Infantry is also shown. One dramatic Norman Rockwell-type photograph shows Doran’s pom-pom silhouetted ominously against the sky, with five of his men clustered around it. Two miniature photographs (4x4 cms) show two of Doran’s men engaged in a boxing match with gloves.

Eleven photographs deal with this aspect. Five show rebel trials in the process of taking place on the market square. The trials are those of Cmdt Gideon Scheepers (at Graaff-Reinet), Wilkie & Scholtz, F. Steynburg (2 views) & Swanepoel. Three show Boer prisoners – one of them "Col Doran’s Boer Prisoners." These were presumably the members of Cmdt Piet van der Merwe’s commando, captured near Laingsburg in September 1901 (see J.A. Smith Ek Rebelleer, pp. 65-75). These are the only known photographs of Van der Merwe’s commando. An unidentified photograph shows wagons bringing what appears to be Lotter’s commando into Graaf-Reinet. One photograph entitled "Arrest of Prisoners" shows local Boers being marched through the streets & another, a much better one, is entitled "Escort to Boer Prisoners". Although small the quality of these photographs is very good. If enlarged some of them would be quite sensational from a historical point of view, as well as being outstanding photographic compositions in their own right. One photograph shows a number of people drawn up before the town commandant, the men doffing their hats. The caption reads "The farmers give three cheers for the King before being allowed to go out of town". Another is of a large group of men (The "compulsory corps" – presumably a labour levy) drawn up behind a rope barrier.

Two views show a wiring party repairing the damaged town perimeter, possibly after the attack of 1902. Col Sawyer is present in this party, inspecting the damage & the repair work.

An extraordinary view of fine quality shows a curious crowd of soldiers gathered at the door of a shed & a coffin being loaded onto a cart. A second photograph, more explicit but of less superior quality, shows a funeral cortege (with coffin) on a cart, with three black-coated & hatted men (the local dominee?) sandwiched between it & an armed escort. This is likely to have been the funeral of Commandant Carel van Heerden, who was killed in the attack on Aberdeen in May 1902. If indeed so, these photographs increase the dramatic value of the album and are the only known photographs of that event – or, rather, of its sequel the funeral – a tightly restricted & regulated event enacted in the shadow of martial law.

Five photographs portray the inside (three), and outside of P.W. Rubidge’s house, & of his carriage, after the house was "destroyed by Scheepers" on the 5^th March 1901. The house was not in fact destroyed but (on the evidence of the photographs) trashed. Rubidge was head of the Aberdeen Town Guard. A sixth photograph (probably taken on the outskirts of the town), shows Rubidge being brought back to the town on a donkey cart. This was shortly after he had been released by Scheepers, who had first captured & then compelled him to take an oath of neutrality. This effectively removed Rubidge from the conflict. The farmer who brought him back to town (identified in the caption) was named Probart. He was a vivid & colourful character who, in the course of the conflict, changed sides & became a supporter of the Boers (see H.J.C. Pieterse, Oorlogsavonture Van Genl. Wynand Malan, pp. 168-172). Probart later made a present of his own horse to Scheepers, and the latter rode it until compelled to surrender in October 1901. Unfortunately the features of neither Probart nor Rubidge can be identified in the photograph, only the caption identifies them.

Two photographs portray the wounded Lt Heymann recuperating in bed. His unit is not identified. "Cecil" (Dollie Luckhoff’s brother?) is shown in hospital in June 1901, with a nurse above him. There is a faded photograph of the military hospital at Port Elizabeth.

There are four unidentified railway scenes. One is of a large British naval gun on a carriage, the others (two of which are clear) are of trains.

There is a large (16x11 cms) group portrait of Col Sawyer & Staff, at Cradock. He was commanding officer of No. 8 Area in the Cape Colony. During 1901 he was O.C. at Aberdeen for a long period. Sawyer features in a number of other group portraits, along with Lieut Heymann (once he had recovered from his wound) & other officers of the garrison. Lieut Heymann is shown in six photographs where he appears with Dollie & members of her family. Dollie’s nickname for him was "Face". There is one faded photograph of General Inigo Jones & staff.

De la Rey, Lucas Meyer & DeWet are all featured, along with a large photograph (15x12 cms) of a burly Commandant Cor Olivier ("General Olivier") mounted on a horse.

Six photographs feature fun & games on the Aberdeen croquet court, one a game on the local tennis court, and one of a woman in long skirts on a bicycle. There is a baboon (Jacko) on a chain (it is not disclosed what side he was on).

About ten photographs show troops & civilians gathered outside an official building (as for a sentencing), others show various interesting garrison scenes inside Aberdeen, firing a maxim at shooting practice & military camps in the veld.

Nine large photographs (15x11 cms) show wrecks of wooden sailing ships which were thrown up on the beach in Algoa Bay. This occurred during a violent storm in September 1902. The detail of all these photographs is very clear & unfaded & the overall quality outstanding. After the photographs of Aberdeen during the Boer War, this essay of the after effects of a catastrophic storm represents the next most impressive part of the album. All the wrecks are identified. The nine photographs feature the following vessels: 1) Content, Emmanuel, Oakworth, Iris 2) Inchcape Rock, Coriolanus, Hanswagner 3) Gabrielle 4) Sayce 5) Inchcape Rock at high tide 6) Thekla 7) Constant & Arnold 8) Thekla & Sayce 9) Inchcape Rock at high tide. Four small photographs (5x5 cms) show the Port Elizabeth jetty, a steam launch (tugboat) in the harbour, and two of the jetty with cranes & railway tracks. The detail is very clear.

Two photographs feature Van Staden’s River in 1902, while another two show a large group camping out there with wagons & tents. There are four (faded) photographs of Elsenburg Agricultural School, and one in a similar condition of the Uitenhage Town Hall. There is one photograph each of Blauwkrantz valley & Kloof, and one of the Blauwkrantz Bridge, 220 feet high. The Bachelor’s New Year party was held at Elephant’s Camp, Van Staden’s 1902, and there are portraits of landscape & garden scenes in & around Aberdeen & at Blauwkrantz. Nine large photographs (13x17 cms) show various aspects of West Bridgeford Hall, Nottingham, England, an impressive manor house. There are farming scenes of ostriches & cattle in a river.

Two photographs show the Upper & Lower Houses of St. Andrews College in Grahamstown. One portrait shows boys bathing at Hauser’s Poort in Grahamstown. An excellent rugby team portrait shows the 1^st XV, SAC holders of Birch Cup, and one of the S.A.C. Cadet Camp at Blauwkrantz. Five other photographs feature St. Andrews, portraits of schoolboy classes in uniform & one of a girl’s school on an outing in Grahamstown.

A few photographs at the end of the album carry the Dollie Luckhoff story forward into the 1960’s, with the marriage of her daughter & other family events.

One chapter only (pages 60-70) deals with the battle of Stormberg (1899), and is written by Johannes Meintjes.

The astonishing account of the greatest escape of the Boer War. Five Boers escaped from Ceylon on a Russian ship. They made their way back to S.A. via Europe & German South-West. In the north-west Cape they re-attached themselves to the Boer forces, one man being mortally wounded & another wounded & captured.

One chapter (pp. 34-40) is entitled "The Congregation and the Anglo-Boer War, 1899-1902".

The anonymous author recorded the experiences of M.J. Bornman, a Boer officer who escaped from a P.O.W. train near Noupoort in the spring of 1900. Bornman went underground on farms east of Cradock & aided the formation of a rebel group, which made preparations to join the invading republican commandos. Unfortunately this book is one of a fair number of Afrikaans Boer War memoirs in which "in some instances it was not thought advisable to give the real name of people". One is therefore left guessing at the true identity of the people who created the underground cell with Bornman. One of them was undoubtedly C.J.F. Botha (later commandant), who is never named in the book. Another was Captain G.H.P. van Reenen, a Steynsburg rebel, who is often named. The value of this account is a little mixed. There is an outstanding verbatim report of a speech made at one of the underground meetings, and this account is the only published one of proceedings at such a Cape rebel meeting. On the other hand, the account of the activities of the "Bamboesberg spook commando" which was active in the western Bamboesberg in the last months of 1900 appears to be considerably exaggerated. Bornman by all accounts played a very active part in an ambush in the Eastern Cape in March 1901 in which two prominent local farmers died. The manner in which these two men – Captain Rennie & Mr Ross – were shot down "in cold blood", without being given the opportunity of surrendering, sent shock waves through the loyalist communities of the Eastern Cape. After the event General Kritzinger "admonished the Field-Cornet (ie. Bornman) strongly and advised him that the Boers observed the international regulations for warfare strictly and that something like this was not allowed to happen." In March 1901 Bornman returned to the southern O.F.S. with Van Reenen. He served for some time there under General Piet Kritzinger so that his biography is an important source for that little-known theatre. In July 1901 he was captured at Ruigtevlei, Cape Colony, when Commandant van Reenen’s commando was ambushed & a number of men captured. He was then transported to Bermuda as a P.O.W. Bornman’s biography is a valuable source on a number of shadowy individuals & little-known campaigns & incidents, but it also needs to be approached with a certain amount of caution and some claims need independent verification.

A very important Cape rebel account. Bosman wrote the account of his father, J.P. Bosman, who went into rebellion in 1899 as a Burghersdorp schoolteacher & joined the local commando under Cmdt du Plooy. He was at the battle of Stormberg then fell back all the way through the O.F.S. with the Republican forces. The retreat continued through the Transvaal & he describes the battle of Dalmanutha, the last set-piece battle in the initial, conventional phase of the war. In September 1900 a number of Cape rebels congregated at Komatipoort on the Mozambique border. Bosman gives an interesting description of this crocodile-infested & fever-stricken tropical area. From Komatipoort he accompanied President Steyn through the Lowveld & the Bushveld, travelling via Pietersburg. Back in the O.F.S. he joined a commando operating in the vicinity of Winburg and Senekal. He took part in the bloody guerilla fighting on the northern plains through the first half of 1901, clashing often with black troops in British uniform. In the winter of 1901 he detached himself from this commando & drifted southward. Near Wonderkop he met up with Deneys Reitz & remained with him for some time, so that for a period his account & that of Reitz run parallel. This is how Reitz records the meeting: "On the morning after our departure from the farm, as we were descending the pass near Breslersflat, a young fellow named Jacobus Bosman came riding up. When we told him that we were going to the Cape he said he would come too. As he was one of the Cape rebels who had joined the Boers during their temporary occupation of Colesberg in the beginning of the war, I advised him to stay where he was, for if he were captured on British territory, it would go hard with him. He said he would take the risk, so we enlisted him, but my warning was justified, for he was taken and hanged, as will be seen later on." But Reitz was mistaken. Bosman survived the war & lived on for many years afterwards. His account of his experiences with Reitz differs in some respects from the latter’s own account. Their small band joined Smuts’ commando near the Orange River & accompanied it into the Cape Colony in early September 1901. While still in the Eastern Cape, and shortly after crossing the frontier, Bosman was taken seriously ill. Reitz describes the events: "The next loss was heavier for me. My friend Jacobus Bosman, who had so loyally stood by me when the others turned back in the Free State, was taken ill with some malignant fever. He gamely tried to keep up, but we had to leave him delirious at a farm. I went off with a heavy heart, for I knew that he was doubly in danger. If the disease spared him the English would be waiting with a charge of high treason, and my fears were only too well founded, for about three weeks later I read that he had been sentenced to be hanged as a rebel at Graaff-Reinet." This, as has been seen, did not occur. Bosman was held as a rebel in Cradock jail, along with a Jew named Cohen from Smuts’ commando. This man had been wounded in the fight with the 17^th Lancers at Elands River Poort. "Besides being a brave man" Reitz wrote later, "Cohen must have been a bit of a wag, for I subsequently read in an English newspaper that when he was captured, and asked by a British officer why he, a Jew and an Uitlander, was fighting for the Boers, he replied that he was fighting for the Franchise." Also held with Bosman at Cradock was Captain "Bontjan" van Heerden, a prominent local rebel and scout commander from Kritzinger’s commando. In 1902 Bosman was transferred to Tokai near Cape Town, to serve a prison sentence. He gives an excellent desription of the harrowing conditions in that jail. This is a very cheaply produced facsimile-type edition. The original (ca 1948) is now very difficult to obtain.

A very comprehensive half-centenary album which deals with most of the major military and political aspects of the war. There is, if anything, a concentration on the political aspects (causes & results), and exile & Cape politics. Issues such as the Boer deputations in Europe, the pro-Boer movement there, and the executions of Boers in the colony are not neglected. Four chapters are devoted solely to the Cape Colony.

9. Breytenbach (J.H.) DIE GESKIEDENIS VAN DIE TWEEDE VRYHEIDSOORLOG IN SUID-AFRIKA, 1899-1902, Deel 1 Die Boere-offensief Okt.-Nov. 1899, 508 pages, 8 maps, 27 photographs, black cloth, Die Staatsdrukker, Pretoria, Tweede Druk, Pretoria, 1978.

Two chapters only deal specifically with the Cape. One covers the Western Front offensive – capture of Vryburg & sieges of Mafeking & Kuruman. The second describes the Boer invasion of the Cape Colony south of the Orange River.

10. Breytenbach (J.H.) DIE GESKIEDENIS VAN DIE TWEEDE VRYHEIDSOORLOG IN SUID-AFRIKA, 1899-1902, Deel 1V Die Boereterugtog uit Kaapland, 513 pages, 7 folding maps, 34 photographs, black cloth, Die Staatsdrukker, Pretoria, Tweede Druk, Pretoria, 1983.

The entire volume deals with events in 1900 at Colesberg, the relief of Kimberley & the capture of Cronje at Paardeberg.

11. Brink (Adjudant J.N.) OORLOG EN BALLINGSKAP, Ladybrand-kommando, O.V.S., 286 pages, photographs, brown cloth, Ons Geskiedenis-Serie, Nasionale Pers, Cape Town, 1940.
12. Brink describes the battles of Rooilaagte, Magersfontein, the Prieska Expedition, Biddulphsberg (where members of the Guards Brigade were burnt to death in a veld fire), and his capture in the Brandwater Basin. The second half of the book covers his incarceration as a prisoner-of-war in Diyatalawa camp in Ceylon. One chapter discusses the Ragama punishment camp. His description of the Prieska Expedition is excellent, including the following anecdote of the heroic behaviour of Miss Bissett, ardent young Imperialist & the Postmistress of Omdraaisvlei. The invading commando arrived at the farm & engaged in conversation with Mr Bissett, the owner: "But in the background of this conversation I heard a telegraph machine ticking away constantly. He told us that his daughter was the Postmistress. The commandant and I immediately raced to the Post Office. The door was locked. At our insistent request the door was opened by an attractive young woman. We immediately forbade the woman to telegraph any farther. The machine was still busy receiving messages from De Aar. The young woman walked suddenly away from the equipment in behind the counter, threw open a drawer & drew out a revolver. In a sharp tone she shouted: "I am the Government official here and in the name of my Queen I order you two to immediately leave this office or (and at this she stuck the revolver in my face) or I’ll shoot you both dead!" I was unarmed. Luckily the commandant had his big sjambok in his hand, and he at once struck the revolver out of her hand so that it fell on the floor. She tried to pick it up but I prevented her. She began to cry from malice and disappointment. Her father had meanwhile come in & immediately led her away. I was almost the victim of a passionately loyal woman and my narrow escape was entirely due to the commandant’s quick reactions."

The Siege of Okiep (and the surrender of the neighbouring copper towns) is developing as a small sub-genre within the literature of the Boer War, with a number of researchers continuing to work in the area & a number of diaries & memoirs awaiting publication. This is likely to survive as one of the best publications on the subject. The commander at Okiep was Lieutenant Colonel W.S. Shelton & Burke had full access to his papers in the U.K. This was the first time these extensive papers – consisting of official Staff Diary, private papers, documents and unique personal photographs – had been used by a researcher & this fact gives considerable authority to Burke’s publication. Many original documents (including two Smuts letters) are reproduced in facsimile form. One of the interesting characters who enter the story is Lieutenant Ironside of the Royal Artillery, who commanded the field guns in Namaqualand. During WW2 Ironside’s earlier service was mythologized. "In 1899", wrote Sir John Hammerton in The Second Great War: A Standard History, (Vol. 1, p. 138) "as a British secret service agent, in East Africa, he served in the German army, pretending to be a young Boer with pro-German sympathies. One day he made a slip and answered an offricer in High German instead of Taal, and had to run for his life." This sounds like a very garbled account & could in fact refer to an incident in the Boer War. But Ironside’s Boer War papers should be extant & he is another man whose role in S.A., although minor, would merit careful study.

One of Scotland’s favourite sons, "Fighting Mac" rose through the ranks & became a general during the Sudan campaign. But his career ended in disgrace & he blew his brains out in a Paris hotel room in 1903. One chapter covers his service at Majuba during the First Boer War (where his bravery resulted in one of the positions being named "MacDonald’s koppie") & another long chapter his service in the main Boer War – at Magersfontein & Paardeberg & during the Relief of Kimberley. (Four copies only in S.A.B.)

A born-and-bred Free Stater, Cleaver was marked out for the highest levels of the judiciary & for positions even beyond that. In 1898 Jan Smuts, State Advocate, appointed him as second State Prosecutor for the Witwatersrand, with resposibility for cleaning up the Reef. He went to war as a Field-Cornet & was legal adviser during the Prieska Expedition of February 1900 - the first Boer raid deep into colonial territory. Beginning with high hopes, the raid fizzled out & ended as a fiasco. This raid was a precursor to & served as a model for the later raids into the colony that would follow. Cleaver, his personal standing enhanced, returned from the Kalahari to the Witwatersrand looking like an Old Testament prophet, with honey & dust tangled in his unruly beard. Captured at Pretoria in June 1900, Cleaver was sent as a prisoner-of-war to Ceylon. He died there of fever in November 1900, his tragic death ending a short life of great promise. An English-speaking Boer, Cleaver was representative of a new kind of South African who only began to emerge in large numbers well on into the 20^th Century. This varied volume consists of his own autobiographical writings (some published in the Standard & Digger’s News), war reports, letters & memories of him by his mother.

This famous East London regiment "was prominent throughout the Anglo-Boer War including the siege of Wepener and the famous "De Wet hunt" prior to the onset of the guerilla warfare which brought the war to its end." Pages 46-94 deal with the Boer War, approx half of that detailing service in the colony & the remainder in the O.F.S. As one would expect from a border regiment, the Kaffrarian Rifles were very prominent in the Frontier Wars. Their service in the World Wars was also distinguished & a final chapter covers the other Border War in S.W.A.

Despatches written in the field by various Boer leaders. There is an 8 page report written by De la Rey in the field & sent to President Kruger in Holland. Smuts’ Cape Colony report is present, also 16 affidavits & letters dealing with atrocities against Boers, protests against the use of black troops, and executions of captured Boers. Conditions at the Mafeking concentration camp are also touched on.

18. De Kersauson de Pennendreff (R.) EK EN DIE VIERKLEUR, 140 pages, photographs, blue cloth, dust wrapper, a fine copy, Afrikaanse Pers-Boekhandel, Johannesburg, (1960)

A rare diary of the Cape guerilla war and one of the most important Boer sources on the campaign there. The author was a young French volunteer & nephew of Villebois Mareuil. He entered the Cape with Wynand Malan’s T.V.K. in February 1901 (during De Wet’s invasion) & in April accompanied Manie Maritz to the Western Cape. There are very good descriptions of Malan, Maritz, Gideon Scheepers & Willem Fouche. "Robert the Frenchman" as he was known by the Boers, gives the only detailed description of Maritz’s trek to & arrival in the Western Cape in April 1901. This was a critical time in Maritz’s command (and, indeed, in the war in that region), during which he methodically built up his power base and embarked on his first offensive southwards towards the Boland. In June Maritz sent De Kersauson to Europe on a hazardous mission to take despatches to Leyds. He travelled through SWA & returned in 1902 in time to take part in the closing stages of the war in the North-West under Smuts.

This is far and away the most comprehensive & important publication on the military events in the Cape Colony during the Boer War. A small part of the book (perhaps 10%) was translated by Preller into Afrikaans & published in his book on Scheepers. But the book as a whole has never been made available in English & there is nothing at all like it in the historiography of the war in the Cape. The first invasion of the Cape Colony, including Magersfontein & the other battles on the Western Front, is covered by G.C. du Plessis. Andries de Wet describes the Prieska Expedition, in which he was a leading figure. This expedition wasan important precursor to the later invasions into the Cape. Hendrik van Doornik, a young Hollander who entered the country initially as a newspaper correspondent, describes the invasions of De Wet, Hertzog, Kritzinger & Lategan. Van Doornik served (now as a fighting guerilla) in Kritzinger’s commando in 1901 & he gives a full account of this important general’s activities in both the Cape & the O.F.S. After Kritzinger was severely wounded & captured on the blockhouse line in December 1901, the commando fell under the command of Louis Wessels. This marked a period when Wessels’ commando was the only Boer unit operating in the Cape Midlands, at a time when the guerilla campaign had fallen apart in that region. Van Doornik’s full account is the only record we have of this period. Andries De Wet, who was in self-imposed exile in Europe for most of 1900 & 1901, describes the activities of Maritz & Smuts, the surrender activities & the flight of the rebels & foreigners through South West Africa to Europe. General Smuts’ official account is also included.

The only major commandos not covered in this account are those of Malan, Scheepers, Fouche, Lotter & Van Reenen – all Midlands & Eastern Cape commandos – and Van Zyl and De Villiers who operated in Griqualand West & British Bechuanaland. If the activities of those guerillas could be added to a translation of this book one would have a complete account of events in the Cape Colony. This is by-and-large a contemporary account since the three authors wrote about events of which they had direct & personal experience. In a few instances their personal experience was augmented by the memoirs of commandants with whom they had personal contact in Europe after the war. De Wet had a lot to do with Maritz & Neser, while Van Doornik knew Lategan & Conroy, and had access to their papers (now lost) after the war.

Of the three authors, little is known of Du Plessis beyond the fact that he lived in the Rhineland for a period in 1901, where he never missed an opportunity to inform the German public of the part he had played in the war. De Wet began the war as a crack scout commander & one of the leaders of the 1900 Prieska Expedition. He remained in Europe for well over a year & finally returned to S.A. in late 1901, linking up with Smuts’ forces in the North-West. Smuts made him a commandant & he was the man ordered to form a firing-squad to execute the traitor Colyn (see Reitz, Commando, pp. 293-4). Van Doornik is the most interesting of the three authors. In 1901 he sent articles on the O.F.S. guerilla war back to his newspaper. These articles have never been collected. During the war he was Louis Wessels’ commando secretary. His home was in Hilversum, Holland, and after the war he gave accomodation to a number of exiled Boer leaders there. He was killed in the Rebellion in S.A. in 1914, although the circumstances of his death are by no means clear.

Much the greater part of this extraordinary & fantastical book (pp. 54 – 261) deals with Dean’s experiences in South Africa between 1900 & about 1906. An American, the author arrived in Cape Town in 1900 filled with dreams of mystical Ethiopianism, and immediately proceeded to attempt to establish a Pan-African Empire based on sea-trade. There is a good description of coloured Cape Town in 1900, when Dean did most of his socializing in Hanover Street. In 1901 he travelled in the interior districts of the Cape Colony, and encountered General de Wet’s advance guard under the command of Captain Wessel(s). He described him as follows: "Captain Wessel was a man of perhaps forty years of age. He was six feet tall with raven black hair and a strong hard face. His skin was dark enough so that he would have been taken for a quadroon in America. He was dressed in Khaki pants, puttees and short boots of dove-coloured buckskin. A bandanna handkerchief about his neck, and a broad-brimmed felt hat like that worn by a Texas cowboy completed the picture. He was armed with a forty-five rifle which was slung across his back, two pistols at his side, and a great cartridge belt around his waist."

Dean moved to Pondoland where he attempted to lay the foundations of his Ethiopean Empire in tandem with that of the African Methodist Church (A.M.E.) of Bishop Coppin. He moved to Basutoland where he promoted Ethiopianism under the patronage of Chief Lerothodi & established a colony. At Thaba Nchu he enlisted as a special scout in General Ian Hamilton’s column. He saw a great deal of the Boer War in the O.F.S., also witnessing at one stage a pitched artillery battle on the veld. After the war Dean’s political activities brought him in conflict with British Imperialism. Financially broken, he was forced to leave South Africa, "land of villainy, blood and tears." Dean’s account of incidents in the Boer War does not always ring completely true. But he left behind a vivid account of a unique career which is without parallel in the history of South Africa. His account is, along with Sol Plaatje’s, the fullest description of events in the Cape Colony by an African (or African American).

Fifty-two historical monuments are featured, most being photographs but there are also a few other illustrations. The monuments divide into seven groups, the seventh (comprising twenty-four) is devoted to the history of the Anglo-Boer War. Most of these monuments are in the O.F.S. but the Scheepers monument at Graaff-Reinet, and those at Magersfontein, Maitland & Cradock are shown.

22. Du Plessis (Ph. J.) OOMBLIKKE VAN SPANNING, 150 pp., 3 photographs & other illustrations, 2 maps, commando list at back, green cloth a little stained, expertly recased, Second edition, Ons Geskiedenis-Serie, Nasionale Pers, Cape Town, 1942.

Part of a schoolboy conspiracy to join the invading commandos in the Cape, "Boy" du Plessis rebelled as early as January 1901. He was one of more than 20 boys & young men who, in a single day, joined the commandos of Scheepers & Captain Willem Fouche in the Sneeuberg north of Murraysburg. He took part in the first Boer raid westwards to near Oudtshoorn. Scheepers & Fouche worked closely in tandem on this raid, which took place under General Kritzinger’s overall command. This is the only published account of that momentous raid which for the first time carried the war to the gates of the Western Cape. When Fouche went to open up a new front in the North-East Cape in April 1901, Du Plessis accompanied him & participated in the guerilla operations in that region for over a year. His account is the major source on Fouche, who is an underrated & unjustly forgotten figure today. One of the outstanding events of this period of service in the North-East Cape was the attack on the concentration camp of Aliwal North in mid-1901. Like Johannes Smith, Boy Du Plessis volunteered for the attack on Aberdeen & emerged unscathed from the inferno. Du Plessis became a very well-known Dutch Reform Church dominee after the war. Of a nervous, sensitive disposition, he was not typical guerilla material. But he showed tremendous courage & application to emerge by war’s end as a competent & highly rated fighter.

Three chapters (pp. 106-126) cover the Boer War. One chapter describes the Boer occupation of the town in late 1899, another the Boer concentration camp on the Kraai River (where a measles epidemic killed thousands in 1901) and a final chapter covers the Neumeyer incident. This chapter (not totally reliable) discusses the events of November 1900, when Captain Gideon Scheepers sent a patrol of 20 Boers to execute Lieutenant Neumeyer near Rouxville.

A novel of the siege of Mafeking. Characterized by vivid realism, this account was spectacularly successful & sold 250 000 copies. It is a relentless exposure of the hardships & horrors of war.

Pages 63-81 cover the Boer War. Much of this pre-eminent Grahamstown regiment’s service was in the Cape Colony in Crabbe’s column. The remainder of the book deals with the Frontier Wars & the two World Wars.

27. Hales (A.G.) CAMPAIGN PICTURES Of the War in South Africa (1899-1902), Letters from the Front, 303 pp., frontispiece portrait, red cloth gilt, back a little faded, Cassell and Company, London, 1900.

The author was special correspondent of the Daily News. The book divides into four parts: experiences with the Australians on the Colesberg front, with the Boers in the Stormberg region (where the author was a prisoner for a month), events in the Brandwater Basin in mid-1900, "The Free Stater’s Last Stand", and finally a number of varied sketches, including one entitled "With the Basutos". The author was fascinated by the work of the scouts, and did a great deal to establish the reputations of men such as Captain Driscoll & Lieut Jack Brabant. Hales was no jingo. His journalism lacks the somewhat fanciful "bite" of Edgar Wallace, but is politically much more moderate in tone. There is a very interesting account of his slight wounding & capture near Rensburg. In general he gives the Boers a very good press: "The Boer is a rough-looking beggar in the field, ‘e don’t wear no uniform, ‘nd ‘e don’t know enough about soldiers’ drill to keep himself warm, but ‘e can fight in ‘is own bloomin’ style, which ain’t our style. If’e’d come out on the veld, ‘nd fight us our way, we’d lick him every time, but when it comes to fightin’ in the koppies, why, the Boer is a dandy, ‘nd if the rest of Europe don’t think so, only let ‘em have a try at ‘im ‘nd see. But when ‘e has shot you he acts like a blessed Christian, ‘nd bears no malice. ‘E’s like a bloomin’ South Sea cocoanut, not much to look at outside, but white ‘nd sweet inside when yer know ‘im, ‘nd its when you’re wounded ‘nd a prisoner that you get a chance to know ‘im see."

Hales also found that the Boers had not lost their respect for the Queen & the Royal family: "In nearly every hotel, and in many of the public places, portraits of our Queen and members of the Royal Family have been hanging side by side with portraits of notable men, such as Mr. Gladstone, Lord Salisbury, Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Rhodes. During the course of the war all kinds and conditions of Boers have had free access to the rooms where those portraits were to be seen, but now I find that no damage has been done to any of those pictures, excepting those of Mr. Rhodes and Mr. Chamberlain. This has not been an oversight on the part of the Boers, for I defy any person to find a solitary picture of the last two-named gentlemen that has not been hacked with knives. But the Queen and Royal Family photos have in every case been treated with respect."

28. Hancock (W.K.) SMUTS Vol. 1 The Sanguine Years 1870-1919, Vol. 2 The Fields of Force 1919-1950, 617+590 pages, 18 photographs, 4 maps, 2 cartoons, green cloth, dust wrappers badly frayed with one waterstained & mildewed, edges of vol. 2 a little discoloured & a few pages uncut, title page of vol. 2 has been torn out, a reading set only, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1962

The war is dealt with between pages 107 & 163, but one chapter only (Chapter 8 "The Invasion of Cape Colony") covers his celebrated trek south. There is a valuable map plotting his route & an annotated photograph of his entire staff taken at O’Okiep in April 1902.

28. [Hancock (W.K.) & Van der Poel (Jean) editors] SELECTIONS FROM THE SMUTS PAPERS, Vols 1 June 1886-May 1902, 2 June 1902-May 1910, 3 June 1901-November 1918, 4 November 1918-August 1919, 663+638+688+461 pages, brown cloth, d.ws, the first four volumes only from a seven-volume set, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1966.

The first volume contains most of the material written by Smuts on the Boer War. This appears mostly here in bilingual form & amounts to a considerable body of material. Smuts kept a short diary of his legendary trek into the colony & this appears between pages 407 & 422. His well-known reports of this trek, which were sent to Genls De la Rey & Botha & President Kruger, appear between pp. 422 & 445. In addition there is the long "Memoirs of the Boer War" (pp. 537-663) which recently appeared as a monograph under the Jonathan Ball imprint. Smuts recorded some other notes on the war in the Cape Colony, as part of a long history he intended to write, but these have never been published.

The Quakers were active throughout S.A. during the war years (notably in the concentration camps) & during the reconstruction. One of the most interesting chapters of Cape Quakerism relates to James Butler, editor of the Midland News at Cradock, who was regarded by the jingos as a typical "mugwump".

The 9 authors were all "Members of the Moderamen, of the Synodical Mission Board and Professors of the Theological Seminary." The chapters are entitled "Misunderstandings", "Accusations", "Boer and Missionary", "The Dutch Reformed Church and Missions". This slim publication is the most important statement made by the Cape Church during the war. The final paragraph is both poetic and prophetic: "These are dark days for South Africa: the century closes in deepest gloom. There are ruined homes, shattered lives, and broken hearts amongst us. Our sons, our brothers, our relatives have settled down in the Republics; many of them have been called to the front. Some have already laid down their lives in fighting for their adopted country. How long is this to last? It rests with the Christians of England to make themselves heard. If they persist in fanning the flames of race-hatred and national pride, if they echo the cry for vengeance which is heard everywhere, the war will be pursued to its bitter end. But it will leave behind a long track of woe and of sorrow which years will not efface."

A racy desription of the pursuit of De Wet, following his invasion of the Cape Colony in February 1901. The chase was successful since De Wet only managed to remain for two weeks in the colony before being ejected.

A hundred pages are devoted to the Boer War, and there is also a chapter on the Matabeleland campaign of the 1890’s.

Jooste was captured in mid-1900 in the Orange Free State & sent to Diyatalawa in Ceylon. He escaped from there by ship in dramatic fashion, and made his way back, via Swakopmund, to the Boer forces near Calvinia. This is a rare publication recording a little-known incident.

Jordaan’s book contains the accounts of 40 men executed in the Cape Colony under martial law between 1901 & 1902. These accounts include verbatim copies of death-cell letters to their families, accounts by Dutch Reformed Church dominees who administered the "last rites", also accounts by a few other individuals who were close to the executions. A few biographical accounts are supplied along with, occasionally, the condemned men’s war careers. The longest account is that of the end of the celebrated Commandant Gideon Scheepers, who was shot at Graaff-Reinet in January, 1902. There are 27 small photographs of the condemned men. Some of the letters, mostly charged with intense emotion & highly transcendent in tone and content, count among the finest ecstatic reveries in Christian literature. Here is a paragraph from the letter which Lieut Isak Liebenberg, 18 years old, wrote to his mother & little brother:

"Mother, the Lord has forgiven me all my trespasses & I belong to him. He has forgiven me everything and whatever he does is done well. Thus, my mother, I take my refuge in the Lord. He is our refuge and comfort & will save & comfort us. Jesus takes the sinners in. Dear Mother, I wish you, little brother and friends God’s finest blessing. Believe and trust in the Lord and it will go well with you. I am going to be cut off and will meet you in the hereafter in eternal salvation. Oh! How joyful it will be to meet there as the angels of God. Farewell, dear Mother, now we must separate. But your faith I will keep forever. Thus, dear Mother and friends, do not mourn for me. I am safe with the Lord and whatever he does is well done. His will must be done. Therefore – I am going to leave you. Jesus is my Saviour; I belong to him. Jesus takes the sinners in; He has taken me in also, opened heaven for me, in complete trust I may come to him. Jesus takes the sinners in, Mama."

Isak Liebenberg, a farmboy from the Phillipolis district of the Orange Free State, was hanged at Aliwal North in January 1902.

In this edition there is also the account of the deaths of Rev. Heese, Visser & others (who were shot by Australian troops in the Northern Transvaal in 1901) and General Beyers & Jopie Fourie, so that a large part of the pantheon of Afrikaner martyrs is covered. Oom Abrie Oosthuizen of Aliwal North is shortly to publish an update of this account, providing a wealth of new material and original, unpublished photographs, so keep an eye on the press!!!

38. Kieran (Brian L.) O’OKIEP, The Defence and Relief of O’Okiep, Freedom, Franchise and Disillusionment, Black and Coloured Aspirations, Cape Colony 4 April to 4 May 1902, 274 pages, maps, maps on endpapers, numerous black and white illustrations with 9 colour plates, troop returns & medal rolls, brown cloth, d.w., Privately printed, Hong Kong, 1995.

The inspiration for this publication was the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990. Sumptuously produced, the book is a combination of different elements. It is valuable to people who come at the Boer War from very different directions. Overall, it is one of the finest books produced on the war. There is an introduction to the guerilla war in the Cape (the second invasion), a general discussion of the campaign in the North-West, and a concentration on the siege of Okiep. The role of coloured (and African) troops is foregrounded throughout, with a discussion of the legacy of the execution of Abraham Esau. Parallel to the historical detail is the author’s interest in medal collecting and he provides much detail on the Queen’s Medal, the Transport Medal & the Okiep Copper Company medal & their recipients in Namaqualand. The medal rolls of the Namaqualand units who received the various awards are given in full. This applies not only to the British regiments, but also to the racially mixed Town Guards & the coloured regiments: Bushmanland Borderers & Namaqualand Border Scouts. Kieran has somehow (and this no mean achievement) managed to marry the conflicting historical legacies of Boer, Brit and Coloured in such a way that all emerge with credit & are handled sympathetically. The crews of the Royal Navy and merchant ships which operated on the West Coast are named and the ships clearly identified. There are excellent photographs of two of the ships, including H.M.S. Sybille which ran aground off Lamberts Bay in January 1901, after coming under fire.

This volume includes Kipling’s Boer War stories, such as "The Captive", "A Sahib’s War", "The Comprehension of Private Copper", and "Mrs. Bathurst". Kipling’s mainstream Imperialism is evident throughout, as in "The Captive", where a Boer P.O.W., being transported by train to Cape Town, narrates the following: "Then we got into the Colony, and the rebs – ministers mostly and school-masters - came round the cars with fruit and sympathy and texts."

Discovered by Stephen Gray in the 70’s and first published in 1980 – the centenary year of Leipoldt’s birth – this novel charts the impact of the Boer War on one rural Cape community. The village described is a fictionalized Clanwilliam, where Leipoldt spent his boyhood, described first in its halcyon pre-war aspect and then as subsumed by the sharp conflict and bitterness of guerilla war and martial law. Although fictionalized this historical novel is closely based on actual events in and around Clanwilliam during 1900-1901. In the words of Leipoldt’s own resume of the book, "It explains the factors that have tended to promote disunion and disharmony in South Africa since 1900, and gives at the same time an accurate representation of conditions as they existed at the time of the Boer War."

Colonel Georges, Comte de Villebois-Mareuil, was greatly respected by the Boers, who nick-named him "Wildeboer". Dr W.G. Tempelhof, a Prussian doctor serving with the Boers at Kimberley, described him as follows: "Villebois was an old campaigner, could stand any amount of fatigue and heat, and was a nobleman of the old school. He did his own cooking, being very particular regarding his meals. I have even seen him mending his own trousers!" According to Andries Smorenburg, who was present at Villebois’ Last Stand, the colonel was not killed but committed suicide. In his published memoirs (Christiaan De Wet-Annale, No. 6, October 1984), Smoreburg described the action near Boshof: "Then, without any warning, the tragedy happened. One of the soldiers was somewhere in front of his fellows and came up to where Mareuil, some of the others and I had formed a central group. As he came nearer, Mareuil seized his revolver and shot him at point blank range (luckily not fatal, as was proved afterwards); he then raised his gun to his temple and with the cry "Ma fille" fell dead at our feet." This is however not the course of events given by MacNab in this book.

Two chapters (pp. 104 – 114) deal with martial law & the problems this caused for the Cape Dutch Reformed Clergy. These chapters are "De Boerepredikant door een Engelse Officier Gedreigd" and "Uiterste Ontmoeten Elkander". During the war the author was exiled from Victoria West, and lived in Cape Town. He was permitted to return to that Karoo town in May 1902, on payment of bail of 1000 pounds. Six chapters (pp. 114 – 151) cover aspects of the early history of Kakamas, where the D.R.C. established a labour colony in 1898. The last two articles are written in English, one on the theme of rugby football (after a local tournament) & published in the Cape Argus in 1913.

Most of the publication covers Goold-Adams’ years in Bechuanaland & Rhodesia. Two chapters (pp. 159 – 171) deal with the Siege if Mafeking, and a final chapter covers the remainder of his S.A. service up to 1901.

First published in 1913. Malherbe was the outstanding Afrikaans novelist of his generation. Born in 1881, he spent the war studying at Wellington & Stellenbosch and then teaching at Montagu. This is one of a considerable number of Afrikaans novels which recreate conditions in the small interior towns of the Cape Colony. Malherbe’s novel, like all the others, examines the troubled relationship which existed between the Boer townspeople & the occupational garrisons exercising authority under the wide latitude of martial law. The invading Boer commandant is widely believed to be based on Gideon Scheepers (see P.C. Schoonees, Die Prosa Van Die Tweede Afrikaanse Beweging, p.172), but this is incorrect. The historical figure on which the fictional Commandant Bester is based was actually General Kritzinger, with only Bester’s execution based on that of Scheepers. Malherbe’s uncompleted & unpublished autobiography, "Uit my lewensboek", is housed at the New Afrikaans Literary Museum in Bloemfontein, and it would be interesting to see what the memoirs reveal of the war experiences of so important a Cape literary figure.

The war is covered between pages 60-76, when Malherbe was the D.R.C. minister at Luckhoff in the O.F.S. & in Cape Town in exile. Lionel James in On the Heels of De Wet provides a war-time description of Malherbe, but as revealed here the details were mostly inaccurate. Other chapters discuss the build-up to war & the post-war reconstruction period.

Although abbreviated, the seven chapters (pp. 11-54) in which Maritz records his war experiences are a valuable record (largely free of his virulent anti-Semitism), especially for the period when he was a crack general over the rebel forces of the Western & North-Western Cape.

Another Copy: Maroon cloth, expertly recased, dust-wrapper repaired, some browning throughout.

A biography of the war career of General Piet Kritzinger, commander-in-chief of the republican & rebel forces in the Cape Colony. This Afrikaans version is the same as the English edition published in 1904 as In The Shadow Of Death, with the one exception that a valuable introduction - a biographical sketch - has been added. The biographical section of this book is found between pp. 1-86. Kritzinger was a key figure in the Boer War, so that the value of this brief biography can hardly be over-estimated. It covers not only Kritzinger’s military career, but also his capture & imprisonment, and subsequent trial under martial law. The second section of the book (pp. 87-193) consists of five thematic essays (all in Afrikaans), one of which is entitled "The Uprising in the Colony". McDonald wrote the original English version of this book while travelling with Kritzinger, Willem Fouche & Giep Joubert (former commandant of the Bethulie commando) to Europe in September 1902.

McDonald was biographer of General Piet Kritzinger. He was a theology student ("proponent") who interrupted his studies at Stellenbosch to go on commando. An Afrikaans-speaking Boer & a committed republican, McDonald served throughout with some of the most aggressive & charismatic commando leaders the war produced: Christiaan de Wet, Willem Fouche, Piet Kritzinger & Louis Wessels. The men he served with says something about the author – he was a fiery & hardened bittereinder who enjoyed being in the forefront of action, even though he was only "armed" with a Bible & never carried a weapon. McDonald throws new light on events in the south-eastern O.F.S. in the last quarter of 1900. Among other things, his account establishes for the first time the very prominent role Captain Willem Fouche played in raising this dormant region – and specifically his role in the attacks on Wepener, Zastron & Rouxville. McDonald entered the Cape with Kritzinger in 1901, but he hardly touches on his campaigns in that year, since they are covered in full in his other book. He is however an important source on the activities of Kritzinger’s commando after the latter was captured, when Louis Wessels took over command. Finally, there are six thematic essays on various aspects of commando life. It is to be hoped that the McDonald family will follow this publication up with one on the trip undertaken to Europe in September 1902, if such a manuscript exists. The four men who travelled there (see previous entry) went to Europe to attempt to raise money for the widows & orphans in South Africa, and also to get treatment for Cmdt Giep Joubert, who had been seriously wounded in the stomach. Their public meetings in England were characterized by great disruption & during one riot in Cambridge they were compelled to escape an excited mob through the back window. Cmdt Fouche later made light of this incident, saying that he had been in much tighter corners during the war. When Kritzinger & McDonald returned to S.A. in 1903 Fouche & Joubert went on to America, where the latter died from his wound. Fouche settled in the Boer colony in New Mexico for a while before returning to South Africa.

One chapter (pp. 40-49) deals with the war. This Cape Town regiment was at the battle of Fabers Puts in May 1900, where Lt.-Col. Spence was killed. Thereafter they formed part of the garrison at Griquatown. Most of the book deals with the D.E.O.R.’s extensive service in East Africa & the Western Desert during WW2.

Scheepers was a charismatic Boer commando leader who was executed at Graaff-Reinet in January 1902. This is a good introduction to an under-researched figure in S.A. history. Meintjes correctly calls his book "a fragment of South African history centered around a key figure."

The main focus is on the battle of Stormberg in December 1899.

There is much of general interest covering the turn-of-the-century period, but only two chapters are exclusively devoted to the war. One covers the author’s experiences in Johannesburg up to mid-1900, with some important details on Danie Theron. Thereafter she moved to Swellendam and gives a good description of the life of a pro-Republican family living under martial law. There are references to Gideon Scheepers, who was active not very far from Swellendam. (See also Gordon Tomlinson’s novel in this catalog).

A distinguished product of Cape Liberalism, and a prominent member of the Cape Parliament, Merriman referred to the war as "unjust and unjustifiable" & a "disgraceful and ruinous enterprise". In 1901, while the Cape was under martial law, he was held for a brief period under house arrest. His wartime correspondence stretches over 230 pages in this volume.

Only one chapter covers the Boer war, when Smith was an intelligence agent operating out of Upington.

The title is a conscious echo of Deneys Reitz’s classic account, for Meyer served with Reitz in the Cape Colony and he set out to write an Afrikaans version of Commando. In this he succeeded, for Kommando-Jare is in the same class as its predecessor, as one of the pre-eminent narratives of the Boer War. Like Reitz, Meyer was seventeen when the war began. He was also a product of the Boer aristocracy, his grandfather being the former president Marthinus Wessels Pretorius. He fought on the Western Front & at Magersfontein, under General de Wet, then with the Transvaal Brigade in the Western Transvaal. This little-known unit consisted of young daredevils impatient with the safety-first tactics of middle-aged commanders like General Liebenberg. Meyer accompanied General Smuts to the Cape Colony in mid-1901. His narrative captures perfectly the tremendous energy & zest for life & adventure which characterized so many of the young Boers in the Colony. He was often in Deneys Reitz’s company & he is an interesting source on incidents Reitz failed to record in his own book. Reitz, on the other hand, rarely mentioned Meyer, with the exception of the attack on the 17^th Lancers at Elands River Poort, where he erroneously refers to him as "A young Transvaaler named Muller". Here is a description from Meyer of the Siege of Okiep:

"There was another character who became very prominent at this time. This was the irrepressible Deneys Reitz. Here was a unique person, jovial by nature, an engaging personality, a daredevil, reckless & brave.

One afternoon, with the enemy too quiet for his liking, Reitz tied a Union Jack around his horse’s tail. Quietly, he rode up close to one of the blockhouses. Then he raced at full gallop right past the front of the fort, with the so holy British flag waving behind his horse. The expected reaction was then not long in coming. Every single rifle in the fort opened up on Reitz and a storm of bullets fell all around him. But Reitz raced out on the other side. For him it was the biggest joke of the day. And he wouldn’t hesitate to repeat the gamble. Here was truly a man who enjoyed the blessing of the gods!

And just as little as this man was disposed to worry about his own safety, so he did not concern himself at all about his physical appearance. Reitz was one of the untidiest men in our commando. His clothing was always in a neglected, dilapidated condition. But this did not concern the happy-go-lucky Reitz at all. And it was this side of this lovable character which was responsible one day for an amusing incident here at Okiep. General Smuts sent me to look for Reitz and a certain Dr van Warmelo; he wanted to speak to them. I went around among the burghers but could find the two men nowhere. I came to a group of burghers and asked if they hadn’t perhaps seen the two. "Yes, they’re standing over there, said one of the burghers, indicating two men in the vicinity. And yes, truly, it was Reitz and Van Warmelo, but both were in such a dilapidated condition that at first glance I hadn’t recognized them. I walked up to the two and gave them Smuts’ message. "But guys", I said, "you can’t appear before the general like that. Come with me to that shop and dress yourselves decently first."

The scene in the shop I will never forget. Deneys Reitz and Van Warmelo, both stark naked, climbed onto the counter and were parading up and down, while I scratched about in the shelves looking for a suit of clothes to fit them."

This is a South African view of Smuts, as opposed to Hancock’s which is essentially an Imperial view. The Boer War is covered on pp. 113-118. Millin was an extremely talented (and now unjustly ignored) writer & this is an outstandingly well-written biography.

The first 48 pages cover the period of the Boer War. The text of the entire diary (i.e. the entire book barring a short introduction & appendices) was written & published in English, not Afrikaans. Murray (nee Kriel) was the wife of Ds. John Murray, who assisted his father with his clerical duties at Worcester. During 1900 the couple lived at Mossel Bay. In the following year John Murray went to minister to the Boer inhabitants of the Pietermaritzburg concentration camp. Susanna & her two young daughters moved to Alice. Her husband writes a long & valuable description of the Port Elizabeth concentration camp & four letters from the Pietermaritzburg camp, all of which are published here. At the end of the year came the news of the death of Willie Louw, executed as a Cape rebel. The response of the Murray family underlines the civil nature of the war in the Cape, for Susanna Murray’s sister had married the brother of Willie Louw, & Willie’s mother was born a Murray. Also included is a Dutch letter from Willie Louw’s father to another of his sons, in which he describes in emotional terms the circumstances of the execution. In May 1902, during the last days of the war, John Murray’s brother was killed while serving with the Graaff-Reinet Town Guard, so the family mourned dead on both sides of the conflict. Two photographs of John Murray in the Pietermaritzburg concentration camp are included. This important volume, exemplifying the dualistic position of colonial society, maps the faultlines of a society divided against itself & reveals in particular the exposed position of the Dutch Reformed Church clergy.

The most detailed account which has thus far appeared on the black involvement in the war.

One chapter (pp. 36-48) describes Hertzog’s wartime experiences, including his December 1900 invasion of the Cape. A map plots his route.

A family history of the Calvinia district. The author’s father fought as a boy rebel under Cmdt Abraham Louw & General Manie Maritz. His account includes many fascinating anecdotes of the Boer War in the Western & North-Western Cape. Pages 15 – 56, for instance, deal exclusively with the war. There is an eye-witness description of the shooting of Abraham Esau which is the first new evidence to emerge in some time which has a direct bearing on that incident. Nel is at the moment completing a full account of the Boer War in the Calvinia district. This should be published by the end of the year & promises to be one of the most interesting new publications on the war.

Like Conroy’s, this is one of the most astounding documents to emerge from the Boer War in the Cape. From Colesberg district, Neser was in the Z.A.S.M. & his war began in late October 1899, when he placed his signal lamps down on the counter at Volksrust for the last time, and he & Charlie Park, assistant chef, went off to join the Boer forces. Thus commenced a bloody & violent odyssey which is virtually without parallel in the literature of the Boer War. His career during 1900 was varied & unique. He served initially on the Colesberg front, then as a veld policeman conveying money & bullion around the country. Operating under General Hertzog’s sanction he went into the Cape Colony as a spy during mid-1900, to test colonial attitudes towards rebellion & a general uprising. He made contact with a republican cell in Graaff-Reinet, and also with local Bond leaders there & elsewhere (who advised against invasion). After a few months in the Cape Colony Neser returned to the Orange Free State. He gave his information to Hertzog & then returned to the Cape with him in the invasion of December 1900. When Hertzog returned to the O.F.S. Neser attached himself as a Field-Cornet to Commandant Hendrik Lategan’s Colesberg rebel commando. From April 1901 to June 1902 he served unbrokenly in the Cape.

Neser was severely wounded at Tweefontein on the 21^st July 1901, when Lategan’s commando was broken up. He sheltered in the veld until he had recovered. He built up another commando in the Roggeveld & General Smuts appointed him commandant over the large Fraserburg & Sutherland commando in late 1901. He was present at many of the major engagements in western Cape Colony, including Tontelboskolk. But the real value of Neser’s account is that it is a detailed narrative of events in the Roggeveld & Sutherland regions of the Great Karoo. Very little is known of the war in these arid & isolated parts & it is safe to say that, but for Neser’s memoirs, nothing of consequence would be known at all. The war here was one fought mainly between coloured & African (Fingo) troops, on the one hand, and Boers on the other. As Neser reveals, it was a bloody conflict characterized by deep-seated hatreds, in which no prisoners were taken. Neser remained irreconcilable to the end & at Soetwater in June 1902 he became violently drunk, challenged Smuts’ authority, accused him of treason & tried to organize opposition to the Boer surrender. When this failed he fled to Europe via South West Africa, along with a number of other rebels. After a few years in exile he returned to S.A. under an assumed name & lived underground in the O.F.S. His career did not end there, for in 1914 he, like Conroy, rebelled again. His memoirs of that second rebellion were recorded, but not published here. He died at Bloemfontein in 1959. Neser recorded four separate memoirs of his war experiences, and these have been expertly integrated into one chronological narrative by Dr A. Wessels.

The New Age was "one of the two most influential humanitarian publications of the period." The other was Ethical World (see M. van Wyk Smith, Drummer Hodge, p. 141). "The paper’s editor, Harold Rylett, was secretary to the Stop the War Committee, and with several anonymous correspondents in South Africa it became something of an unofficial organ for the whole pro-Boer movement in England. It was banned in South Africa, along with several others of the same persuasion." The poems in this publication divide into four groups: "Poems from Cape Town" (12), "Poems from Cape Town by other writers" (5), "Poems by Bertrand Shadwell" (13), "Poems by various authors" (37). The poems in the first group were written by Alice Green, Betty Molteno, and Anna Purcell. All three of these poets lived in Cape Town. They were acolytes of Olive Schreiner & formed a close-knit group. Schreiner spoke of them in 1900 as "the three only real friends I have in South Africa" (see Karel Schoeman, Only An Anguish To Live Here, p. 157). Some identification of the anonymous S.A. authors has been made. Anna Purcell wrote "The Rebel" (in the second group), Alice Green wrote "The Last March of Lotter’s Commando", "The Four Roads" & "The Boer Women Camp" (all in the first group). Betty Molteno wrote "Scheepers" (first group), and F.C. Kolbe, a Roman Catholic priest, wrote "Two June Pictures", also in the first group. Of note is "The Executions in Cape Colony: a fragment" written by "F.W.B." in Cape Town on the 30^th July, 1901. The author was C. Louis Leipoldt, and this was one of the last poems he wrote in S.A. before leaving for the continent.

The overriding mood of the poets in this volume was a revulsion at the very high death-rates of Boer women & children in the concentration camps. Occupying the Liberal humanitarian wing of British society they refused to shoulder the burden of guilt unleashed by the camp deaths. One sees in this, in a very concrete way, how the Boer War (via the destruction of the camps) contributed markedly to the splitting not only of British but also Victorian society. A second major theme is the executions in the Cape Colony of captured Boers. These executions (including that of Scheepers) sent shock-waves throughout the colony, creating a deep division along the same lines as in the metropolis. The case of Gideon Scheepers – a young Republican burgher executed at Graaff-Reinet in January 1902 – features prominently in the volume. Apart from the poems there is a report from the Manchester Guardian emphasizing Scheepers’ chivalrous treatment of wounded British prisoners on the battlefield, as well as a description of the capture of Lotter & his commando & their entry as prisoners into Graaff-Reinet. This publication is now difficult to find on the open market and, in a broad cultural sense, is one of the most important to chart the impact of the war on the Cape Colony & on England.

64. Notcutt (H. Clement) HOW KIMBERLEY WAS HELD FOR ENGLAND, The Story of a Four Months Siege, Reprinted with alterations and additions from the "Cape Times", 38 pages, 15x12,5 cms, Privately printed, Cape Town, (1900).

During the siege the author was Head Master of the Boy’s Public School, Kimberley.

This North-East Cape commemorative album includes passages from manuscripts, memoirs (both published & unpublished), letters, diaries, trial & archival records; also photographs, sketches & cartoons. All the towns of the greater Stormberg region are covered: Aliwal North, Dordrecht, Burghersdorp, Lady Grey, Barkly East, Jamestown & Rhodes.

Oosthuizen is a talented writer & his account reads like a novel. You will meet remarkable people in this narrative, men like the courageous Lieut Piet Bester, a deserter from the Cape Police who combined brigandage with guerilla warfare & was flogged by Captain Willem Fouche. Captured by the British he was executed in the veld near Dordrecht. The author puts very long experience of his region to good use in tracing many oral & written accounts which would otherwise have been lost. The centre of gravity of the book is the account of the destruction of Commandant Stoffel Myburgh’s commando. Pursued by Colonel Harry Scobell, Myburgh was trapped in November 1901 on top of the Drakensberg & on the Basutoland border. He retreated to Motkop (from the peak now known as Scobell’s Kop) & took up a position among the gravestones in the local churchyard. Under shellfire the commando disintegrated & ceased to exist. Early in 1902 Commandant Willem Fouche was severely wounded & secretly sheltered & nursed in a cave which has since become known as Fouchesrust. Oosthuizen was the first to establish this sequence of events, ninety years after they happened. Fouche was the leading figure in the North-East Cape and after he had recovered the commandos left the region, bringing an end to the Boer guerilla struggle there.

An outstanding guide to the undiscovered tourist paradise of the North-East Cape. A labour of love compiled over many decades by a native of the region salted in local history, lore & mythology. Hundreds of Boer War memorials & graves are featured here, each accompanied by colourful & accurate historical details. A timely publication on the eve of the centenary and it is to be hoped that other regions will follow suit. This is Oom Abrie’s third publication on the Boer War in six years (with another one pending) & he is developing single-handedly into a major cultural force in the North-East Cape.

The premier Cape Town regiment. One chapter (pp. 40-58) covers the Boer War, during which the unit suffered heavy casualties at Jacobsdal on the 25^th October, 1900. The book deals largely with the Second World War & service in the Western desert & Italy.

Perold was Dutch Reformed Church minister at Warrenton & was typical of the Cape churchmen who were exiled & imprisoned under martial law. His book consists of 29 narrative poems in Dutch. These poems enact a drama centered on a typical Boer woman (a widow) who is gradually enveloped & overwhelmed by war & transported to a concentration camp.

In many ways this biographical account is the most important one on the Cape Colony to emerge from the Boer side. At well over 300 pages long it is packed with detail & covers relatively obscure parts of the war. Had it not been written we would today know next to nothing of the guerilla war in the Karoo and Midlands, while the activities of Malan’s commando itself would have remained a closed book. Malan was a man who understood perfectly the guerilla art of operating always in congenial waters & of deriving maximum support from the local population. He was able to stay invisible for long periods of time & strike when least expected. As an extremely able commander he fully justified British Military Intelligence’s secret assessment of him as "the cleverest of all the Cape commanders".

Malan served on the Natal front & then in the O.F.S. with Captain Danie Theron’s legendary Theron Scout Corps, under General de Wet’s overall command. He entered the Cape Colony in February 1901 at the head of a small band of 25 men. He quickly became Kritzinger’s senior commandant in the Cape, with outstanding men such as Willem Fouche & Gideon Scheepers under his command. In July 1901 Malan departed to the O.F.S. on a political mission which was ill-advised & unsuccessful. But the trek itself, which lasted four months, was one of the most audacious & spectacular of the entire war. In January 1902 Smuts promoted Malan to general. His great ambition was to operate with a rebel commando in the Boland, where he had grown up in "the cradle of Afrikaner civilization". But Smuts sent him to operate instead in the deadly Midlands & eastern Karoo regions. With five commandos under him he crossed the line eastwards. The region they were heading into (around Graaff-Reinet) was criss-crossed by railways & heavily garrisoned & fortified. In addition they could expect very few rebel recruits there. Boers who were captured could often expect little less than execution, whether they were republicans or rebels & irrespective of their rank.

East of the line four of Malan’s commandos deserted – those under the two Pypers brothers, Smith & Van Reenen - and veered north towards the calmer waters of Hopetown. Only Judge Commandant Henry Hugo stuck to his commander, in what must have appeared to many as a suicide mission. But Hugo was killed in a clash at Wagenaarskraal, and his successor, Johannes Rudolph, was severely wounded & captured. Malan linked up with Cmdt Fouche in the Midlands & these two quintessential bittereinders were the last guerilla commanders to operate east of the railway line in the Cape. Rudolph’s successor, the well-known Carel van Heerden, was killed in an attack on Aberdeen in May 1902. Malan himself was severely wounded & captured in the same month. The results of Malan’s highly dangerous trek eastwards in 1902 therefore partly corroborated the opinions of those who felt that the Midlands were too dangerous to operate within. Malan made a miraculous recovery from his wounds & in 1907 trekked to East Africa, where he lived for forty-five years. In WW1 he was, ironically, interned by the Germans as a British subject. In 1938, after having been thought dead for many years, he returned to S.A. & made pilgrimages to the graves of many of his former comrades. His visit attracted considerable attention & H.J.C. Pieterse recorded his memoirs. He died in Tanganyika in 1953.

This diary (dated 1899-1900) had to wait three-quarters of a century before appearing in print, and stands as the earliest book-length publication by a black South African. This fact alone is indicative of the great influence of the Boer War on black cultural development. Plaatje was one of the outstanding intellectuals of his day. Giving an interpretation of the siege from an African point of view, his diary is a unique & colourful account of a celebrated event.

Another edition: 172 pages, first paperback edition, James Currey, London, 1990.

One chapter (pp. 273-94) is entitled "Armed Natives in the South African War" & includes a summary of the Barolong in the Siege of Mafeking, along with a short discussion of the Bakhatla role in the war.

Pages 17-48 deal with the author’s experiences in wartime Cape Colony, including service in a mounted colonial unit. The next 24 pages cover service in the police in Rhodesia. The remainder of the book consists of the author’s experiences at Gallipoli, while serving with the Australian forces.

The publication consists of four parts, the first (68 pages) being a short biographical sketch of Scheepers, with the emphasis on his imprisonment & execution, and the search for his body. The second part is the first publication of Scheepers’ original Dutch/Afrikaans prison diary, while the third is an Afrikaans translation of nine chapters in De Wet, Van Doornik & Du Plessis’ Die Buren in der Kapkolonie in Kriege mit Engeland. Finally, Preller included a number of letters written by Scheepers & others also, mainly concerned with his execution & the search for his grave. This is a valuable account of aspects of the man’s career. It is greatly superior to Meintjes’ work, but still a very long way off from being a full biography. The great significance of the first publication of the original diary is self evident. The nine chapters taken from the book of De Wet et al are a fascinating glimpse into what is by far the most comprehensive publication on the war in the Cape.

An outstanding collection of important documents and memoirs relating to the experiences of Boer women & children outside the concentration camps. Generally speaking these deal with women on the veld, in prison & in hospitals. In a publication of many highlights, the central feature is the large collection of affidavits (running to 75 pages) relating to atrocities committed on Boer women by black troops & civilians. In many cases these women endured rape & assault. As a result of the rising tide of attacks Genl Hertzog in early 1902 gave instructions to the O.F.S. landdrosts & generals to collect affidavits detailing the assaults. For ninety years the papers lay unused, for much of that time in the Havenga collection of the O.F.S. archives. Havenga, an acclaimed Minister of Finance in later years, was Hertzog’s secretary during the war years. Another high point is the 1902 prison memoirs of Margaretha Joubert (29 pages). A Ficksburg schoolteacher, she was held from March to August 1902 in the Wellington jail. Her diary is an important addition to South African prison literature. The Western Transvaal diary of Mrs C.P. Greeff is included as are two affidavits in English (6 pages) covering the shooting of Lily Rautenbach in the Boer field hospital on the Wilge River in the O.F.S. These describe a sensational incident in December 1901, near Harrismith, when Rautenbach was shot a number of times & seriously wounded by Captain Vaughan of Rimington’s Tigers. The one affidavit is written by the victim herself, and both were collected by Emily Hobhouse. They are the only pieces in English, all the others are in Afrikaans.

76. Radloff (C.H.) GEVANGENISSTEMMEN, Toespraken en preeken gehouden in de gevangenis te Graaff-Reinet in de maanden Maart, April en Mei van 1901, door den gevangene, predikant van Pearston, 97 pages, frontispiece portrait, photographs, half grey cloth with blue paper covered boards, corners bumped & covers a little frayed, HAUM, Amsterdam, 1903.

The author was D.R.C. minister at Pearston, Cape Colony. His arrest & incarceration at Graaff-Reinet in March 1901 was a sequel to the capture & occupation of that town by Kritzinger’s commando early in the same month. Arrested by Col. Gorringe for having received the commando in a friendly fashion, Radloff & nine other members of his congregation were immediately transported to prison in Graaff-Reinet. The author commences with a valuable seven page chapter entitled "Short Sketch of my Life in the Prison". He does not mention Captain Edwin Tennant, Intelligence Officer, by name. But his time in prison was spent under the lash of Tennant’s ardent & aggressive prosecution. Aside from Gideon Scheepers’ diary this is the only published account of conditions in Graaff-Reinet jail during the war. Radloff provides a valuable list of 79 of his fellow prisoners, identifying them by name, age, place of origin (farm & district names) & date of arrest. The core of the book is 31 sermons, introduced consecutively as "The First Day", "The Second Day", and so on, with all the gravity of religious (and political) myths of origin & of the Book of Genesis. The sermons (all in Dutch) appear between pages 20-89.

In mid-1901 Radloff was transferred to the "undesirables" camp at Port Alfred. His seven-page description of that camp is the only one to have been published in book form. This is a rare & sought-after publication on the war in the Cape.

An acknowledged classic, not only of the Boer War, but also of South African literature and, indeed, of the international literature on warfare. In many ways this book is the fountainhead out of which a host of other Boer War books flowed after 1930, both in Afrikaans & English. Many of them were written in conscious emulation of Commando. Reitz’s account needs little introduction but there are nevertheless some points that can be made. The first is to repeat a call first made by Tobie Openshaw, and this is that a book of this stature requires a companion volume to it (in addition to a biography of Reitz).

Herman Charles Bosman stated in "Mafeking Road" that the important thing when telling a story is "to know just at what moment you must knock out your pipe on your veldskoen." Joseph Campbell refined this view in his lifelong study of world mythology & concluded that many of the world’s most successful mythological tales record the journey of the hero through the three stages of separation, initiation and return. With regard to the record of the hero’s journey – the narrative – the most important stage is the initiation, since it is the pivotal stage. Often it is the nature & the quality of the hero’s initiation, during his journey, which determines the excellence or value of a particular narrative. A successful narrative works simultaneously on many levels of course, and the subliminal mythological level is only one of them. In Reitz’s case there are many features to this mythological initiation of the hero. One of the most obvious is the body of Smuts’ men who regarded themselves as the "Groot Reent kerels". These men saw themselves as having gone through a purification process which always afterwards distinguished them from the recruits who joined later. It can be added of course that rain is generally understood, in terms of mythological symbolism, as a purification ritual (see Cirlot’s Dictionary of Symbols).

A second ocurrence is the discovery of the Lost Valley, where time had stood still and as with Rip van Winkle "a shaggy giant in goatskins appeared and spoke to us in strange outlandish Dutch." Very few writers have the outstanding good fortune to stumble on a lost world, and this legendary & unforgettable encounter was certainly responsible in considerable measure for the great success of Commando. In mythological terms this moment represents the book’s centre of gravity and is symbolic of an identification with the rejuvenating & strengthening powers of the human unconscious.

A third instance in which the initiation process is present is in the many classical & literary allusions peppered throughout the book. There are references to Sir Walter Scott, "the cave in the fable", Swiss Family Robinson, Dickens (Mr Micawber), Bobbee near Elandsvlei, "a deep valley that reminded me of Dreadful Hollow in Robbery Under Arms", "the old peoples in the Bible", and finally an incident in which on seeing the sea, a small commando "like the Greek soldiers, rushed forward in a body, crying, "The sea! The sea!" These allusions serve to tie (and, indeed, "initiate"), both author & reader into the world of literature & knowledge.

Reitz’s ending does not conform to the normal ending of the mythical journey, where the author returns to his origins (his family, home etc.) imbued with the superior knowledge & liberating experience of his triumph. Here one may add, as an aside, that one reason why so many Holocaust survivor’s accounts of the Second World War are so bleak, is because the authors returned to ashes & empty graves. The cycle of the hero’s journey could therefore never be closed in the appropriate manner & many individuals drifted off to an uncertain future in displaced persons camps & the struggles of a new life in other countries. Reitz’s ending is by contrast an allegory of South African history itself in that while being fully aware that the Reconstruction was taking place inside the country, he preferred to stand aloof from the process & remain in self-imposed exile overseas, in the margins of history as it were. With hindsight we know that this was a temporary stance which, incidentally, automatically bred a sequel, so that Trekking On became necessary precisely because the circle was not closed in Commando. Because Reitz’s second book achieved that No Outspan was effectively superfluous and should in fact never have been published.

At least four versions of this famous book exist & this is perhaps the time to call for more of these esoteric texts to be made available to the general reading public. It appears that an English translation (1997) of the original Dutch memoir (1903) has been made. This Dutch memoir is far & away the most important of the various manuscripts, the copyright (and manuscript) being held by the Brenthurst Library in Johannesburg. Perhaps they need a little prod to publish it. There will never be a better time for that than next year.

Consists of 69 newspaper articles & appendices, for the Morning Leader, written in the Cape Colony and Natal between the months of June & October 1900. The writer was a typical British pro-Boer, protesting most heavily against martial law & the suspension of parliament. Despite the obvious anti-Imperialist slant, the book is a valuable record of conditions in a host of colonial districts, written at a time when the farm-burnings & concentration camps were beginning to open up deep schisms in colonial society.

Conroy’s father was an Irish Catholic who converted to Protestantism in S.A. & his mother was a Cape Afrikaner. He was typical of those Cape Boers who became increasingly radicalized by events in the Republics & were pushed into rebellion. In this regard the early part of his career follows closely that of Carel van Heerden of Aberdeen. Conroy rebelled in Britstown at the end of December 1900, joining the commando of George Brand. His rise in the Boer ranks was meteoric. In April 1901 General Hertzog (not General de Wet as he claims in this book) promoted Conroy to commandant & sent him to Calvinia to take command of a group of district rebels. Conroy set out with just a few companions on his dangerous mission, and his high-speed ride westwards makes exciting reading.

At Brandvlei Conroy’s command was successfully disputed by Maritz & he left for Kakamas, where he assumed the command of a very large number of unarmed & disorganized rebels. With a large mounted patrol he embarked immediately on offensive action & trekked south towards Kenhardt. At Naroegas he was ambushed by coloured members of the Border Scouts & a number of his men were killed. Conroy withdrew in the night but a few wounded men left behind were stoned to death. Conroy took an oath (The Blood Oath of Naroegas) that he would, in retaliation, execute all coloureds he captured under arms. At war’s end, according to his own claim, he had executed scores of men. The defeat at Naroegas altered the balance of power in Gordonia & the Bushmanland, and Conroy, after first securing the safe refuge of the Kakamas civilians over the border in the German territory, left with the Kakamas commando for Griqualand West. His intention was, for safety reasons, to link up with the commando of General Piet de Villiers. Near Postmasburg Conroy succeeded in this. His invasion of Griqualand West immediately brought a new element, violent & deadly, into the war there. He attacked Griquatown, then besieged Campbell. In August he & De Villiers attacked a convoy operating between Schmidtsdrift & Griquatown, and killed 12 of the escort. He then captured Postmasburg. At this point the parochially & defensive minded Kakamas commando decided that they had had enough of fighting the war & decided to return to their home town (which had in the meantime been occupied briefly by British troops). They deposed Conroy, giving him an "honourable discharge", and returned. Conroy also returned to Kakamas & continued his operations, with about 50 local men who were willing to follow his commands. Captain A.G. de Wet, one of the three authors of Die Buren in der Kapkolonie im Kriege mit England arrived in Kakamas at this time (October 1901) and stated that "Since the days which had preceded Cronje’s capture I had not again seen such a positive spirit as existed in this commando."

By December 1901 Conroy had tired of the Gordonia region & trekked eastwards into the districts of Prieska & Carnarvon, where he continued to be the scourge of the British & their allies up to the declaration. Certain to face trial, he went into exile in Europe but in 1903 returned to S.A. and, like Neser, lived underground in the O.F.S. under an assumed name. In later years he became a very wealthy businessman, took an active part in politics (being a supporter of Hertzog). In 1936 General Smuts appointed Conroy to the Native Affairs Commission, renewing the appointment after the three year term expired! He died at Parys in 1947.

Like the biography of Meyndert Bornman, Conroy’s explosive account needs at times to be approached with a little caution. His account appeared in print after the death of most of the other protagonists (Generals De Wet, Hertzog & Maritz), so that there were few people alive who could challenge the details. His account is nowhere wrong or false, but there are slight errors of omission, especially where personal vanity is at stake. Elements of journalistic license are present at times, on the part of Roodt. The account is, on the other hand, an extremely valuable one for providing a detailed record of events in a backward & isolated region. Comparatively little is known of the war in Gordonia & the Bushmanland (and even less in the Prieska-Carnarvon area). As with Neser’s account (to which it is related), that information would have been reduced to virtually nothing had this book never appeared.

Published anonymously in the Transvaal on the 9^th October, 1899, on the eve of war, certainty about the authors of this polemical work was only reached in 1957. Roos was an attorney in the Transvaal in 1899 and later became a senior civil servant in the Union government. Smuts was Attorney General. This publication attracted a tremendous amount of attention. Its sole purpose was propagandistic; it surveyed the whole troubled history of British-Boer relations in South Africa, casting Britain as the naked aggressor. Smuts successfully suppressed news of his co-authorship & it was only after his death that this was revealed.

Another Copy: 79 pages, orange paper covered boards, Second Afrikaans edition, Human & Rousseau, Cape Town, 1985.

Ross was the civil magistrate at Mafeking during the siege. This is perhaps the fullest & most detailed diary of the celebrated siege. Sol Plaatje worked under Ross as clerk & translator, but Ross never mentions him by name. His & Plaatje’s accounts therefore run parallel, but taken together they constitute an accurate & important South African view of the siege.

The Commission sat in the last quarter of 1902 & continued up to June 1903. It was officially empowered to "inquire into the Military preparations for the War in South Africa, and into the supply of men, ammunition, equipment and transport by sea and land in connection with the campaign, and into the Military operations up to the occupation of Pretoria". In Kipling’s words the Boers had given the British army "no end of a lesson", and the commission was set up to probe the army’s failure in the first part of the campaign & to gauge its preparedness for a European war. All the prominent commanders (and a number of middle-ranking officers), including Lords Roberts and Kitchener, were summoned to give evidence before the commission. The cut-off date was May 1900, but in practice much of the evidence spread over the entire duration of the war. Aside from being extremely informative & providing a detailed view of the inner mechanisms of a vast Imperial expeditionary force, the submissions are often exhilirating & dramatic. There are many tense & terse encounters across the commissioner’s table, with men like Buller & Gatacre fighting to salvage their floundering reputations. This set sometimes appears in four volumes, Cd 1789 providing a preamble to the commission & a justification for its existence.

84. Schoeman (Karel) ONLY AN ANGUISH TO LIVE HERE, Olive Schreiner and the Anglo-Boer War 1899 – 1902, 239 pages, map, numerous photographs, Human & Rousseau, Cape Town, 1992.

Schreiner was in Cape Town for the first few months of the war then moved to the Karoo, living for the duration first at Wagenaarskraal & then in Hanover. She was outspokenly pro-Boer & this resulted in severe tensions not only with the British army, but also with English society in the Cape, which generally tended to be jingoistic. As a known pro-Boer she was subject to martial law restrictions. Contrary to popular belief however, she was never actually detained under house-arrest. In May 1901, at Hanover, she suffered a nervous breakdown from which she never entirely recovered. At that time she was treating her severe asthma with digitalis & amyl nitrate – the latter, interestingly enough, known as "poppers" & used by kids today to obtain a drug "high". To Olive it felt at one stage as if the war would drag on "till all our hearts are broken". The war did in fact split not only South African, but also Victorian society. In this regard Schreiner’s reaction demonstrates unambiguously, in terms of Georg Lukacs’ dictum, "how the concrete historical forces of a particular period have become concentrated in the life of this particular individual".

Karel Schoeman has gone on record as saying that he dislikes & tends to avoid writing on the Voortrekker-era & the Boer War. But on the evidence of this book one may hope that his interests are changing as the centenary nears, for this is one of the more superior publications in the entire spectrum of Boer War historiography. He brings the incisive clarity & effective organizational method of an accomplished writer & historian to bear on his subject. The result is at once apparent & this publication is a very useful guide to social relations in the Cape during the highly divisive war years.

Some church & civic histories are very useful regarding the Boer War, while others provide virtually no details at all. This one is among the more useful on the Boer War in the central Karoo, even though only six highly concentrated pages cover the event. Other chapters deal with conflicts with the Bushmen & on the frontier. Overall this is one of the most interesting histories of a S.A. town to have been published.

The fruits of many years of archival & field research, this is an account of Lotter’s last stand, and of his trial & execution & of those of his officers. Shearing has traced the martial law details of nearly all his men & provides in many cases important biographical details. The volume is particularly well illustrated with some unique photographs, including an astonishing one of Lotter collapsing in Middelburg immediately after hearing his death sentence. (This publication is also available in Afrikaans, although the translation is not of a high standard).

One of the acknowledged classics of the Boer War. Smith became a prominent painter & journalist after the war & his elegant & superbly written account is full of picturesque touches & deft literary flourishes. As a boy aged fourteen he ran away from school at Aberdeen to join the commandos operating under Commandant Gideon Scheepers. He quickly transferred to Wynand Malan’s commando & served under him until the latter’s departure on a mission to the O.F.S. in mid-1901. Smith then came under Piet van der Merwe’s command & left with him on a raid eastwards in late July 1901. Van der Merwe & Scheepers’ commandos were virtually indivisible during this eastward trek, so that Smith’s account is also the only published one of Scheepers’ second raid towards Cape Town. This book is, by the same token, the most important published account on Scheepers. Smith’s description of the ambush at Driefontein, where his commando was decimated & Van der Merwe killed, is one of the most graphic Boer War battle scenes. The survivors trekked north-west and, after Scheepers’ surrender, participated in Manie Maritz’s raid southward into the Boland. His description of this raid is, likewise, the only published one so that, like Jack Crabb in Thomas Berger’s Little Big Man, he seems to have been present in every event of any note. Smith returned with General Wynand Malan to the Midlands & the Eastern Cape in February 1902. In May he took part in the attack on Aberdeen where Commandant Carel van Heerden was killed & his portrait of that man is both informative & engrossing. This is a book which would enjoy a wide readership in English & which eminently deserves to be translated.

Not an autobiography, but a biography written by Smuts’ son. Five chapters cover the Boer War (pp. 47-89). Of all the many Smuts biographies this is by far the best on the Boer War. But nothing short of a full-length study of Smuts’ role in the war will suffice, hence the full story of his contribution has yet to be told.

One of the rarest Afrikaans books on the Cape guerilla war. There is no copy at the S.A. Library, none in the Mendelssohn Collection at Parliament, and nothing at U.C.T., so that not a single copy of this book is available for research purposes in Cape Town. Snyman entered the colony with Field-Cornet Hans Pyper in June 1901, as the latter’s commando secretary. He later served under General Manie Maritz in the Calvinia district, and took part in the attack in late 1901 on Tontelboskolk.

Snyman received the degree of D.Litt. for this study at Potchefstroom University for H.C.E. He examines reactions to war among the entire spectrum of Cape Afrikaners, not just those who were anti-Imperialist. He is critical of the military actions of the rebels, but more sympathetic towards the political objectives of Cape Afrikaners. Overall however he is critical of Republicanism and emphasizes the loyalism of significant sectors of the Afrikaner population. He shows no overriding interest in the military aspects of the war. For him the war in the Cape was fought at the level of ideology and consciousness and he situates the conflict between the vestry and the politician’s office.

Pages 51-59 deal with the Boer War. Snyman’s research is outstanding & highly concentrated, so that these scant pages provide an entirely adequate case study of the causes, course & consequences of the Boer War in one Griqualand West village.

The author was a nephew of the legendary Ikey Sonnenberg. His autobiography is an entertaining & informative narrative, with a description of many important events in the history of southern Africa. He covers the Boer War between pp. 67 – 81. Sonnenberg began the war by trading at sea between Durban & Beira. In 1900 he was employed as an Intelligence agent at Maribogo in British Bechuanaland. He saw three rebels hanged at Vryburg, experienced the guerilla war at close quarters in this Cape district & noted that "Some of the things that happened to the rebels left wounds that rankle after more than half a century." During the Siege of Mafeking his father, from the base at Maribogo, supplied starving African runners with grain, but was arrested by Colonel Vyvian & deported to Cape Town. Two years later, when he was brought before a military court, he was convicted as a rebel. The Sonnenberg family left Maribogo and never returned. Max Sonnenberg later founded Woolworths & contributed immensely towards the building up of South Africa into a modern industrial state.

Abadie arrived in S.A. with the 9^th Lancers. He served in the Relief of Kimberley & thereafter in the O.F.S. and Transvaal. From February 1900 he served on General John French’s staff, and when the latter became commander-in-chief of the Cape Colony he accompanied him there. Abadie took a hard line on the Cape rebels. Writing about the capture of Lotter’s commando, in which his own regiment played an important role, he says on the 9^th September 1901: "We ought to have a few executions here shortly as thirteen of the prisoners are Middelburg men; only three of the commando were not rebels, so if Kitchener of Khartoum has any backbone, the lesson should be a good one to the rebels still out." On the 12^th October he described the execution of Commandant Lotter in less enthusiastic terms: "On Saturday we had a parade of all the troops in the garrison to attend the execution of Commandant Lotter. It took place at 6.45 a.m., a beautiful morning. The whole thing was very well done and arranged. It was not nearly so unpleasant as I had expected and very quick. Luckily he seemed quite dazed and did not seem to know what was going on."

The colour illustrations are among the most famous of the Boer War & are expertly reproduced here. St Leger decsribes events at Kimberley (both siege and relief) & in the campaign in the Orange Free State. Both Sannah’s Post & Roodewal are described. A chapter entitled "Brave Women" is full of praise for the Boer women. Another excellent essay, "Life on Commando", was supplied by "one who, as a Burgher of the Transvaal, fought on the Boer side".

Stanford forged a brilliant career in colonial administration, his forte being Native Affairs. In 1885 he became Chief Magistrate of Griqualand East at Kokstad. Thirty pages cover the Boer War, an inadequate number given Stanford’s very important position in the Eastern Cape as Under-Secretary for Native affairs (from 1897) & commander of the East Griqualand Field Force. These two volumes are a major source on the Ninth Frontier War (1877-8) but only serve as a disjointed (but interesting) introduction to his Boer War service. Hopefully a publication will emerge to fill the gaps.

The author was something of a Boer War Rupert Brooke. Representing The Mail, he & Bennett Burleigh were the two leading war correspondents of their day. Steevens travelled through the Cape, giving lengthy descriptions of Aliwal North and "Rebel Burghersdorp" in 1899. He then moved to the Natal front & describes the battles of Elandslaagte, Dundee & Nicholson’s Nek. Steevens was caught up in Ladysmith during the siege & died there of typhoid shortly after Christmas 1899. One of the finest writers of his generation, his premature death is indicative also of the very high price England was called upon to pay in South Africa.

An adventurer, Count Sternberg was typical of the European military aristocrats who came out to fight with the Boers. Like Villebois he had outstanding military bona fides, having served as a Brigade General in the Austrian army, and was a shrewd military critic. He was described by Dr Tempelhof, a Prussian doctor serving with the Boers, as being intimately familiar with the salons of Europe, and a great admirer of young women and French wines & champagne. During the Siege of Kimberley he, Villebois & Sam Leon (who had brought the Long Toms from France & was chief instructor in the Transvaal Artillery) were constant companions. Sternberg was captured near Kimberley on the 16^th February 1900. He appeared later in London, having been released, suggesting that the Kaiser had intervened to secure his release. He also claimed contacts with various British ministers & this led to controversy and questions in the House regarding his true status in the war.

The official account of the June 1900 Afrikaner Bond conference.

Related to Stormwrack, this is a fictionalized account of a Cape town (Swellendam) during the Boer War. Tomlinson (an Afrikaner) was born in 1888 & lived through the war at Swellendam. This book is however far more didactic a novel than Leipoldt’s. Its primary purpose was to arouse Afrikaner sentiment in the low-key post-Union period & to mobilize that group to participate in the nationalist & language struggles. There is a good exposition of the conditions in the Cape under martial law ("martjie louw"). These conditions drive the main character into rebellion & he joins Scheepers’ commando. There is an important (fictionalized) portrait of Scheepers. In this regard it is worth quoting M.E.R. in her biography My Beskeie Deel: "The rumour went around that Scheepers was in the vicinity with a commando. It was true: Scheepers was behind the mountain and came as far as Barrydale."

Second edition: 115 pages, blue cloth, Nasionale Boekhandel, Cape Town, (ca 1960)

More than a quarter of the book is military history, dealing with the 18^th & 19^th centuries, when Swellendam saw the creation of a short-lived Republic, and was on the Bushman & Hottentot frontier. Considerable attention is given to the commando system & the hunting frontier. Only 3 pages is given to the Boer War.

101. Tredgold (Sir Robert) XHOSA, Tales of Life from the African Veld, 143 pages, illustrations, grey paper covered boards, d.w., George Allen & Unwin, London, 1973. One chapter only deals with the Boer War (pp. 20 – 24), when the author was a trooper of Irregular Horse, operating in the North-East Cape against the commandos of Myburgh & others. Tredgold later achieved fame in Rhodesia, but this account is chiefly of South African hunting & scenes of outdoor life.

This vividly-written memoir covers the period immediately prior to the Boer War, the war itself & the period of reconstruction. The major theme is the author’s struggle for personal emancipation, but external events & circumstances are dealt with very fully. She was a girl of twelve when war came. Her father was the Landdrost at Jacobsdal. He assisted in the treatment of British wounded in the local hospital & was later thanked in writing for this by Lord Methuen. In the second quarter of 1900 the family moved to Bethlehem & were present at its capture by the British. Her father was briefly detained for "ill-treatment of wounded" but once the truth was established they were allowed to trek on parole into the Cape Colony. They settled in Murraysburg, and when the Boers under Captain Gideon Scheepers arrived there in the early part of 1901 her brother Alec rebelled & joined as commando secretary. His memoirs were later published in the Brandwag. Murraysburg was after this often occupied by the Boers & she gives an interesting description of a Cape rural village in the midst of guerilla war. Transported to Graaff-Reinet as "undesirables", her father was imprisoned a second time, this time on the orders of Captain Edwin Tennant. From there the family moved to Tulbagh & Petronella went to school in Wellington. No speaking of Dutch was permitted in the Seminary there & she describes the hysterical bursts of Pentecostal worship which swept the school. At war’s end the family returned to Phillipolis & she gives an excellent description of the Reconstruction period there, where she was very active in Emily Hobhouse’s weaving school.

An early feminist, Petronella van Heerden qualified as a medical doctor in Amsterdam in 1915, being the first Afrikaner woman to do so. After specializing she practised for twenty years as a gynaecologist in Cape Town, and in 1943 retired to her farm in the Harrismith district.

The first publication to cover the spectacular escape of "The Five Swimmers" from Ceylon. This is a popular account, culled from the memoirs of Willie Steyn (the original manuscript is today in the S.A. Library) & some of the other people involved.

This autobiography covers the period from the 1860’s to 1927. The Boer War is covered between pp. 103-156. Fletcher Vane’s S.A. service was varied & extraordinary. Taken collectively his S.A. memoirs (the 3 books) represent one of the most important records of the war from the British side. He participated in Roberts’ advance through the O.F.S. & into the Transvaal as far as Middelburg. In late 1900 he was made District Commandant at Glen, 12 miles north of Bloemfontein, where he had much to do with the formation of the Burgher Scouts. In 1901 he took over at Karee, so that he had ample experience of the problems of civil administration by military forces in the central O.F.S., "I had felt during this time much less a Commandant than a Squire". In late 1901 he joined a column as the Intelligence Officer, and operated first in the southern O.F.S. (where he captured an attractive young woman guerilla) & later in the Cape Colony in the vicinity of Oudtshoorn & Sutherland. He was very critical of the British martial law administration & the trials of rebels & looks in some detail at this aspect of the war in the Cape. He is especially critical of the execution of Gideon Scheepers & devotes 3 pages to the case of this young guerilla commander. Vane ended the war operating in the Komsberg Mountains near Sutherland, where he commanded a small column whose job it was to protect workmen extending the blockhouse lines.

The British officers in South Africa fell broadly into three groups. The first disliked the country & felt resentful at the delay in getting to India, where they saw themselves pursuing a career of glittering promise in the civil & military fields. Kitchener & Genl Carton de Wiart were two men who were typical of this group. With regard to this group it can be added that S.A. had been known since the 1870’s as the graveyard of many a promising military career. A second group were not inherently repelled by the country, they did not regard their career here as a stepping stone to elsewhere, but they wanted to remould the country in the Imperial image. They despised the Boers as backward & inferior. Milner, although not a military man, is typical of this group. French, Scobell & Haig all appear to be representative of this group. A third were "pro-Boers" (in Milner’s sense); they respected & admired the Boers no end – especially the fighting men. They were captivated by the Biblical simplicity of Boer culture. Entirely loyal to their own cause, they nevertheless saw under the skin of the country, and were drawn by what they saw. Fletcher Vane was representative of this last group, as was Allenby & (perhaps) Ian Hamilton. From a S.A. point of view this third group is, naturally, the one that is most interesting. Hardly any of the correspondence of this group has been published & it is to be hoped that the centenary will see this omission rectified.

A humorous child’s diary from the turn of the century. Pages 12 – 29 cover the "The Boer War". Vaughan’s father was a colonial magistrate & she describes the occupation of Pearston by the Boers, and also, later, the fortifications at Adelaide: "On the top of the Dutch Church tower is a pompom gun to protect us when the Boers come. Charles don’t think one pompom can do much good, because all the Maxims and other canons the colum had at Maraisburg never stopped one Boer. They could not stop that man Smuts and his 59 Boers with no pompoms, running over the damwall. Pop says the Boers are the best Gorillers for fighting ever known. Smuts is the leading Goriller running from the Transvaal right down to here. With the pompom on the Tower sit some soldiers, town guards, all day and all night in case the Gorillers come, and tonight the other Town Guards must go out and sleep in a trench with some stones in front of it. They must take guns for shooting and a blanket. Pop took some brandy in a flask becos of the cold."

One of the more useful civic histories regarding the Boer War. Pages 55-71 cover the war, along with 4 photographs. Jamestown was captured during both the first & second Boer invasions & there are lengthy reports from the Cape Times (in English) covering these incursions. In addition a long report by W.J. Barker, local schoolmaster, describes the capture of the town by Kritzinger in June 1901. Another chapter describes events in the Tamboekie War of the 1870’s.

A noted product of Cape Liberalism (as were W.P. Schreiner & Merriman), De Villiers was Chief Justice of the Cape Colony during the Boer War. Anglicized & a loyalist, De Villiers was christened Johan Hendrik but better known as "John Henry". He was not however an unqualified supporter of Imperialism. In 1902 he successfully opposed the suspension of the Cape constitution. He successfully mitigated in some cases the sentences of Cape rebels. Only two chapters here deal directly with the war but there is a great deal of importance on the build-up to the war.

Pages 101-124 cover the Boer War. Schreiner was Cape Prime Minister during 1900, so his biography is of great importance to the conduct & development of the war before his resignation under great pressure in June 1900. The divided house of Cape society is more strongly evident in Schreiner’s family than in that of any other prominent colonial household: "Even as it was, the war was something very like a civil war. His own wife was sister to Frank Reitz, sometime President of the Free State, and now State Secretary of Kruger’s republic; his children were cousins to Reitz’s lads, who were already out on commando with their father, and all of them were of their mother’s way of thinking, except Ursula, who was too small as yet to bother her head with the follies of grown-ups: and so it was with many another family especially those along the Orange River frontier, where one half lived on the Colonial and the other on the Republican side of the line." The case of Olive Schreiner is of course well known. Trying to plough a middle course between Imperialism & Republicanism, Schreiner was destroyed politically. Disillusioned, he turned to the "third force" in politics – the "native problem" – and ended his career advancing the cause of the Africans.

109. Wallace (Edgar) UNOFFICIAL DESPATCHES, 332 pages, photograph, red skivertex, d.w., Struik, Africana Collectanea Series, No. 188 of an edition limited to 1000 numbered copies, Cape Town, (1901) 1975.

These newspaper articles were written in 1900, when Wallace was a Reuter’s correspondent on the Western Front, and in 1901 when he wrote for the Daily Mail. He adopted a staunchly Imperialist line & also at times modelled himself on Kipling, in his salty Tommy Atkins campfire dialogues. More than half of these articles relate to the Cape Colony. Here is Wallace from "Rebellion Made Easy": "At no period, either before or since, did the feeling of Afrikander South Africa run so high as that immediately previous to the second invasion, or approximately in the months of November and December. It was in the middle of November that I had returned from a trip to England, and to say that I was absolutely astounded at the change in public sentiment would be to put it mildly. In place of the old half-sullen toleration, there had sprung into being a fierce, half-crazed spirit which appeared to have taken possession of the whole of Dutch South Africa. Men who had been mildly antagonistic to British policy were now fanatically unreasonable. Those who had wavered between anti-Briton and pro-Boer – and I make this distinction – were now bitterly anti-British. When you spoke to any of these people, you realized that you were in the presence of a new power".

Howell was an Englishman who served in the prestigious Cape Mounted Rifles for the first 15 months of the war. Attached to Brabant’s Colonial Division on the Stormberg front, he goes on to give a detailed description of the Siege of Wepener. In August 1900 he was among the forces which pursued De Wet into the Transvaal. Howell is a valuable source not only on the military activities of this pre-eminent Cape unit, but also on the type of tensions & conflicts in the army which never find their way into the Official Histories. In July for instance, near Senekal, General Rundle isued an order limiting his column to one blanket only, but the colonial volunteers mutinied & refused to march. Colonel Dalgety, commander of the C.M.R. objected & the order was coutermanded. This small incident gives some insight into how "Trundle" Rundle obtained his nickname.

Regarding the question of farm burning, Howell adopts a different attitude to the one shown by March Phillips in With Rimington. "We moved along Valsch River, he wrote on the 13^th November 1900, "and burnt dozens of farms – a rotten job and detested by everybody." On the 6^th January 1901 he wrote "Col. Maxwell is in command. He is most unpopular as he has no idea of trekking – never fights and always shells farms where there are always some women." Howell was commissioned in January 1901 & for the duration of the war joined a column in the Western Transvaal, operating mainly against De la Rey. His diary is one of the most detailed we have from the British side. It is one of only three or four British memoirs to be published in the past 20 years. How ironic that these books (the others are by Wessels (also), De Jong & Burke), should all be published by predominantly-Afrikaner individuals & institutions. Is there no interest in the Boer War in England?!? Come on Albion, this is a clarion call from the colonies to the metropolis, the centenary is upon us, get your house in order!!!

Despite its colourless title, this is a varied & absorbing collection of essays & unpublished manuscripts which is an outstanding addition to the published literature on the war. The high point – and something of an event in the publication of Boer War memoirs – is the diary of Major H.S. Jeudwine. Jeudwine operated in the Western & North-Western Cape, mainly against Maritz, and at one stage was five months away from the railway line. He is a figure of great importance in the Cape guerilla war. This is one of only a handful of British memoirs to be published in the past few decades (this compiler knows only of three or four) and its publication is all the more laudable for that. Jeudwine was commandant of Aliwal North during the last quarter of 1900 and it is a great pity that his diary, although extant, was not also published here. That diary would throw a great deal of light on the Boer remobilization of the south-eastern O.F.S. in October 1900, and in particular on events in Rouxville & Zastron. Two other high points in this volume are the memoirs of a Boer P.O.W. in Portugal, and two short accounts by women of the southern O.F.S. Jeudwine’s diary is in English & the other accounts in Afrikaans or Dutch.

Pages 73-105 deal with the Siege of Mafeking, during which Plaatje was official clerk & interpreter to Charles Bell, Resident Magistrate. One incident during the war years was particularly important for his political development. In late 1901 Judge Sir William Solomon sentenced five Boers to death who had shot captured blacks during the siege. In passing sentence Solomon stated that "they, and those who think with them, should know that the law does not recognize a difference between white and black. A black man has just as much right to live as a white man." According to Willan, "These words were to stay fresh in Plaatje’s memory for the rest of his life: they remained, for him, the classic statement of the moral basis of the Cape’s judicial system, and he was to reiterate them on a number of occasions."

Rose Innes was Cape Colony Attorney-General from June 1900 to February 1902, so he was in a unique position to experience the warring forces which tore the colony apart. More than a hundred pages of letters are devoted to the war, making this collection by far the most important to be published on Cape politics. Innes’ letters were definitely not all written with an eye on eventual publication. Casting many shards of light down the murky corridors of (limited) colonial power, Innes account reveals many of the essential features of the Imperial-colonial relationship. At the same time he reveals a man with an eye for the ludicrous aspects of human vanity. There is the elderly Genl. E.Y Brabant, superseded by Genl French in June 1901, "who did not like being superseded … or humiliated while the war was in progress." Innes provides a considerable amount of information on the tug-of-war between the Imperial military (Kitchener) & Cape political (Sprigg) authorities for control & direction of the elite Cape Mounted Rifles. There is an outstanding (& very funny) description of the deportation of Emily Hobhouse from Cape Town: "the whole job of seeing her and superintending her removal fell on Colonel Williamson, R.A.M.C. … He is an awfully good fellow, a thorough gentleman and with great war experience – he was with Roberts at Candahar – but very reserved and shy with women; he is about fifty-six, I should say, and a bachelor! … To hear his account next morning at breakfast to me was simply excrutiating; I laughed till I was tired. In the middle of it when he was telling how the orderlies were obliged to carry her out I said, "Williamson, I hope what Elizabeth calls her ‘frillies’ were all right." Without a smile, and very earnestly, Williamson said, ‘I am an old hand; I had thought of that; and when she was picked up I threw a shawl over her feet!!’ I had not breath to say a word, but I thought Harry Piers who was sitting opposite would have a fit."

Innes is also a valuable source on the consternation in Cape Town occasioned by Maritz’s raids south into the Boland in late 1901. He reveals the extent to which these raids embarrassed the authorities, and undermined Imperial prestige, and how they resulted in even the Claremont Town Guard being mobilized to hold the blockhouses on the Cape Flats!

The author was a reporter for the Manchester Guardian.

116. Smit (A.P.) & Mare (L.) DIE BELEG VAN MAFEKING, Dagboek van Abraham Stafleu, 285 pages, 2 maps – one folding in pocket at back, numerous illustrations, pictorial paper covered boards, d.w., H.S.R.C., Pretoria, 1985.

One of the few Boer Siege of Mafeking accounts – a diary written in Dutch.