TOPIC:

Good Day. I am trying to access two items I found referenced in the Saturday, September 22, 1900 issue of The Lancet, the British Medical Journal. One is described as "the paper issued by the War Office last week containing the proceedings of the court of inquiry into the treatment of the British Prisoners of war at Pretoria". The second is described as a "covering despatch from Lord Roberts to the Secretary of State for War" which apparently accompanied the war office paper.

Could anyone give me any direction as to how to actually access these two documents. They do seem like the kind of thing that would be retained somewhere. I am not sure whether they would even be in the same place since one is the proceedings of a court of inquiry and the other is a communication by Lord Roberts to the Secretary of State for War. I suspect Lord Roberts communication would actually be more useful to me, but since I have not had a chance to read either one I cannot be sure.

I reside in the USA so I cannot physically visit an archive in England, but I would be happy to write, email, or telephone anyplace they might reside in an effort to track them down.

Many thanks for any assistance.

Try searching here: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

This may be the report to which you refer: discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1193263 . It is not available online but you can order a copy. You can contact www.arcre.com/ , which provides a research service at very good rates.

Mark

Mark

Thank you for your prompt reply. I will explore your suggestions and see what I can learn.

Many thanks

Bob

RPB1947 wrote: The second is described as a "covering despatch from Lord Roberts to the Secretary of State for War" which apparently accompanied the war office paper.

This would probably be a despatch which was published in the London Gazette: www.thegazette.co.uk/ , knowing the date will narrow options. I have found a number of the despatches of Buller by searching Buller and limiting the dates in the advanced search features. Results from a search for Lord Roberts: www.thegazette.co.uk/all-notices/notice?...results-page-size=10

Mark

Mark

Thank you so much for the suggestion on the Gazette and providing the search results. I went through the list but, alas, no luck. I am actually searching for comments Lord Roberts made in his dispatch about a certain Anglican pastor in Pretoria named J. Godfrey. Because of the summary information in the Lancet I am sure such a dispatch was sent.....to the Secretary of State for War.....and the Gazette certainly looks like it would be a place it would be recorded. I also searched the Gazette for any pages containing "Godfrey"....there were lots of them but nothing on my minister. Roberts made some nasty comments on Rev. Godfrey and I am trying to find the exact citation and language. I am close because I know it exists and it must have been forwarded within the period several months prior to Sept. 22, 1900.

I will try and see if the National Archives are any help. Do you know if the National Archives is where the archives for the "War Department" such as it would have been constituted in 1900 would be stored? Someone must hold the letters and dispatches forwarded to the Secretary of State for War.

Again, thank you so much for assisting me.

Bob

Bob,

I should think that the despatches should be found at the NA in Kew.

Did the issue of Lancet have any more definite indication of the source of the information?

I just noticed in your original post, that it accompanied the paper, so it may well be contained within the papers concerning the War Office CoI, mentioned in my first post.

Mark