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Ian,
King's College has (or at least had last time I was there), Sir Henry de Beauvoir de Lisle's unpublished My Narrative of the South African War 1899-1902. De Lisle commanded a 1/2 Bn and later a Bn of MI at Colesberg and Coleskop. If I recall correctly, the unpublished MS is more helpful than his published "Reminiscences." You might also want to take a peak at Chris McQuellin, comp. The Boer War Letters of Albury’s James Scanlan 1899-1902, if you want to see some letters from a NSW MI. Hope that helps.

Thank you very much indeed. I’ll also add these to my list.

Hi Ian,

I’m not sure if you have seen this diary before; it’s currently coming to auction and is out of my price range.

It’s from Brigadier General Reginald Stewart Oxley C.B and apparently comes direct from the family.

However, what is nice is that the auctioneer has put the transcription on line; it may be useful in giving a timeline for the actions around Colesburg:

www.easyliveauction.com/catalogue/lot/55...ing-fishing-lot-337/

Regards,
Shaun

Hi Shaun,

Thank you for this. I can’t bid on this either, but what a find!

Oxley had a staff role and so this diary is hugely important and as you correctly recognised, valuable to me.

I had a quick glance and saw that he comments on the loss of the Wiltshire’s D & G Companies at Rensburg on 14 Feb 1900, saying that it is sickening that a man didn’t know if he had his whole Battalion with him.

My book about the Wiltshire’s corrects the conclusions made at the time, because the 2nd in command Major FC Beatson clearly countermanded the Commanding Officer’s orders which directly led to this disaster.

I can’t wait to read the rest. Thank you also to the Auctioneer for publishing the transcription!

Shaun,

I’ve read a few pages of this diary and it’s full of details, so will be extremely useful to me.

Thank you for spotting this and thinking of me. I’d never have known about it had you not posted on here.

Ian

Ian,

If you haven't done so already, it might be worth downloading the diary in its entirety, as auctioneers often remove transcripts after the sale. I've made this mistake in the past. On contacting the auctioneers, I was told that they could not release the information without the new owner's consent, which on that occasion the buyer was not prepared to give.

Neville