Interested members
I have often seen those pages advertised on *bay and wondered similarly. The only thing I could think they would be useful for was school projects - but then the images could be downloaded.
Anyway, the very worst example of document destruction I ever saw was in the early 1980's and related to papers from a campaign just a Century before the Boer War. In those free and easy days, we here in Sydney had a Firearms Dealer who scoured the globe looking for obsolete/near obsolete stock for retailing. He had an "in" with a big Wholesaler in the US. Anyway, our Mr. X did a winning bid on obsolete items from Portugal. I saw the many cases in his warehouse. Did not see them opened but later saw what was extensively used for packing around the rifles. The "packing" was paper in the form of letters, (apparent) circulars, newspapers, etc and all roughly dated in the early 1800's. The papers were not like modern paper; they were like "rag" paper/parchment and also rather stiff stock like cartridge paper. Some were whole and others were in bundles which had been torn in half to fit. I recognised some of the words - but the real surprise was that a couple of the papers mentioned General Craufurd of the Light Division. For those who may not have heard of General Craufurd, he was a luminary of the British army in the (Napoleonic) Peninsula War in Portugal.
I knew the manager very well and I told him of what the mass of papers appeared to be and "how they must be of interest to SOMEBODY". He said he would keep them aside for me to look at. A week later, when I went back to do some sorting, the papers entire had been put in the garbage. Who knows what (translatable) historic gems were lost to scholars of the Peninsula War!
I know the story does not relate to the Boer War - but is an illustration of the attitude to vintage paperwork not so long ago.
Regards
IL.
