Boer War

[Tony Walker]

It happens to us all once in a while.

I was visiting some relatives down in Dorset last week and the topic of philately cropped up in conversation, no idea why...  Having recently disposed of my Machin collection I'm now all focused on postal history, which I described to my nephew and his wife Hilary, with emphasis on my WW1 material.  Oh! said Hilary, I think I have something like that, somewhere, in a tin.  I've had it for years.  It took a while to locate, but this large tin appeared, and inside was a collection of letters, many with envelopes, of the correspondence from her grandfather from the Boer War, dated between 1899 and 1903.  Probably 150 items, describing actions, from different Field Post Offices, from S Africa, Egypt, India plus a range of other markings etc. etc.  A real treasure trove.

I would have been happy to retire to another room and spend the rest of our stay looking at the material, but that would not have gone down very well.  I have however written to Hilary to ensure the material is kept safe, and suggested she might like to start sorting it, into date order for instance.  She was certainly very motivated by it all.

Does anyone know of a reasonably readable book on the Boer War with a slant on the postal history side, which I could suggest she acquires?  It's not a subject I know anything about myself. 

Dorset is a nice place, would have liked to call in at the RNAS museum in Yeovil, but had to settle for a visit to the tank museum, where there was a 1923 Rolls Royce armoured car. I was surprised and pleased to see the Army acknowledge that Charles Samson, of the RNAS, was the first person to see the benefit of a car, armoured, encouraged by Churchill.  Am working on material from the RNAS Armoured Cars in WW1 if anyone has any material to spare, particularly the Russian foray with Locker Lampson.

Off now for an ice bath