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Dear Forum
I would like to take this opportunity to wish all the ABW community a Safe and Peaceful Christmas.
2020 has been a testing year for everyone. I would especially like to thank all the contributors who have helped me with my questions and clarifications. To David, who has kept the site running throughout the year. Let’s hope by mid-2021 life will get a little easier for us all.
Best wishes

Dave

I would also like to add my Christmas Greetings to all members of the forum and their families......

May your new year be a Happy and Safe one and May you all full fill your dreams......

Mike

A happy Christmas to all, and hopefully a better 2021 too.


"On Christmas Day there appeared to be no prospect of a Christmas dinner, so some of the men clubbed together and bought a ham. They had it boiled, and after it was disposed of a reminder of Christmas at home came in the form of a Christmas pudding 'about the size of a thimble.' " - from Sergeant Master-tailor Edwards, of the Essex Regiment.

"I had a drink of cold water for my ale at Christmas dinner" - from an unnamed soldier at Maitland Camp.

"Christmas Day dinner: stewed rabbits and roast beef and boiled spuds, beans and plum pudding, made up to all right, and for tea, plenty of bread and butter and home-made cake." - from a corporal of the Oxfordshire Light Infantry on board the S.S. Gaika, on its way to South Africa.

"On Christmas Day [we] were on out-post duty. We had dry bread for breakfast, and the same for tea, just the same as we get any other day. We had a pint of beer on Boxing Day, but nothing else." - from Private Robert Asher, from Sutton-in-Ashfield, a Reservist in the 3rd Grenadier Guards.

The Christmas of 1899 in Mafeking has been indeed an eventful one. Sunday we observed as a truce, and it was not only a truce, but a real day of pleasure at Rieslos. A Christmas dinner, which might have vied with many in the old country, was served, and we drank in champagne the toast of "Peace on earth to men of goodwill in beleaguered Mafeking." - from a Press Association despatch from Mafeking.

"I spent the whole of Christmas Day at a place called Bongolo Nek, a pass between two mountains where the Boers could come through, and where some of our scouts are posted day and night. It is about 14 miles from the main camp, and if we sight the enemy we have to gallop back into camp. Another trooper and I left camp at 5 a.m. on Christmas morning. It takes about two hours and a half to ride there, from the camp right across the plain, or, as it is called, the veldt. There we spent the whole day, and no one bothered us, as the Boers seem to keep Christmas the same as we do. Our Christmas dinner, as you may expect, was not very grand. We take out with us tea, coffee, sugar, tinned beef, bread or biscuits, just enough for the day. This was our Christmas dinner, with the exception of a tin of apricot we bought at a store on the way." - from Trooper F. B. Amery, of Brabant's Horse.

blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2013/12/christma...-ladysmith-1899.html

In 2021 may Covid, like Long Tom, eventually cease to cause alarm



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MERRY CHRISTMAS!
GESEENDE KERSFEES!

I wish you all a happy, healthy Christmas and a safe, prosperous New Year with plenty of new ABW stories and QSAs.
Cheers,
Steve

What a great set of posts!

Merry Christmas everyone and best wishes for 2021.