TOPIC:

Did Louis Botha ever write his memoirs as a first person account? I am not able to locate any.

I found this quote from Ian Hamilton in his memoir. “Listening for the Drums” published in 1944 that refers to his doing so.

"Louis Botha has himself told us in his memoirs how he had been on the point of delivering a crushing blow at French and his Cavalry on our extreme left which would have sent him (so Botha was persuaded) scampering back to Pretoria when, his own left having been turned, he had to forgo his coup and fall back with the whole of his force. " Source: Listening for the Drums by General Sir Ian Hamilton Faber And Faber Ltd 24 Russell Square London 1944 p. 248-249 Listening for the Drums : Hamilton : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Perhaps Ian is referring to a magazine article or other published recollection

Louis Botha has several biographys of his life to his credit. But none contain any first person language or, so far as I can tell, discuss this part of the action at Diamond Hill.
General Botha, the Career and the Man, Constable, Harold Spender 1916 Google Books, UCAL-Davis: General Botha, the Career and the Man - Harold Spender - Google Books And: books.google.com/books?id=dxw1AQAAIAAJ Digitized Jul 21, 2010 Length 348 pages
Harold Spender Catalog: at IA: archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%28Harold%20Spender%29
1916 U Michigan Copy at IA: archive.org/details/generalbothacar02spengoog/mode/2up
Cornell Copy: archive.org/details/cu31924028697732/page/n9/mode/2up
General Louis Botha by F. V. Engelenburg, G. G. Harrap & co. ltd. 1929
University of Michigan copy: archive.org/details/generallouisbotha/mode/2up
University of Nottingham copy: archive.org/details/generallouisboth0000fven/mode/2up
Dutch/Afrikaans Edition: General Louis Botha by F. V. Engelenburg, J.L. Van Schalk BPK, Pretoria. 1928. archive.org/details/genllouisbotha00enge/page/n7/mode/2up
Louis Botha: A Man Apart Paperback – Illustrated, September 17, 2018 by Richard Steyn (Author) www.amazon.com/Louis-Botha-Apart-Richard-Steyn/dp/1868429229

The attached Botha Bibliography also has working hyperlinks. I'd appreciate any help in confirming this, on way or another. Thanks. Payton

I want to thank the 46 members who have looked in on this topic over the last couple of days. My supposition is that Louis Botha did not leave any extensive published first person account of his experiences. It is more likely that Ian Hamilton was misremembering his sources when he wrote his book. There may be some journal articles that he wrote or a report that Ian was privy to.

I will keep looking too and appreciate the interest of the communnity on this topic. Maybe something will turn up.

Prof C J (Johan) Barnard wrote a masterful academic work "Generaal Louis Botha op die Natalse Front 1899-1900". It was published by Balkema in 1970. In its extensive bibliography I can see nothing referring to Botha's memoirs.
I am currently in the process of preparing for publication an English version of the book, my collaborator being Prof Rita Barnard, the daughter of Johan Barnard. It will have more illustrations than the original, so I am actively looking for interesting photographs or scans of ephemera to include. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Rob

Thanks Rob.
With respect to your search. Take a look at the Military Officer Album with life sketches and photographs of many officers who don't get a lot of attention.

Our Military Officers. Album of portraits with life sketches.
Original Publication : Onze krijgs-officieren: album van portretten met levens-schetsen der. by Gustav Schoeman Preller, Frans Vredenrijk Engelenburg 1904 Publisher "Volksstem" kantore
Download Access: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Onze_Krijgs-O..._Volksstem,_1904.pdf
Direct Link to File: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5...olksstem%2C_1904.pdf
If anyone downloads it, they can make passable translations of the Bio's using Google Translate. Might have to run OCR on the download to do so.

I emailed you on 12/15 with these links. See if you got it and one I forwarded today. The PDF is too big to upload otherwise I'd just attach it here for the forum to make use of.

Really appreciate the help to cover the waterfront on this issue. But, like Mr. Micawber from Dickens maybe "something will turn up."