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Living in Kingston sometimes has its rewards, this is one of them. The other day I went into one of my regular stops, an antique store on Princess St. One book shelf had all those books marked down to $2 I quickly looked through all the old book spines and found 'Jock of the Bushveld"
The inside cover was notated "Sent to me by the author as a memento of his visit to the Strathconas in 1910. A.C. Macdonell
The Strathconas sinched it and I pulled out a toonie ($2 coin) and the book was mine. I did not yet know the relevance of the author Sir Percy Fitzpatrick or Macdonell, though I should of recognized the name.
As it turns out A.C. Macdonell was Col. of the Strathconas and later Maj. General. He was awarded a DSO for his actions with 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles in South Africa. There is a sports plex at RMC in Kingston named after him.
Sir Percy Fitzpatrick helped to establish the Imperial Light Horse Regiment and later was an MP for the Union of South Africa.
The book itself is fairly valuable if you go by abebooks, it's the signature that makes it priceless. At some point in time relations must have been cleaning out old things and disposed of the book without knowing its historical significance.

Hi Will.....

Fantastic Find...... I am jealous.......

Mike

Will

Presumably the book is a first edition, so there is one set of collectors who would be interested in it; then add the connection with historically important figures from both South Africa and Canada and another two sets would be happy to find a home for it. This must be the book bargain of the year!

Regards
Brett

The book was given to Macdonell in 1910, the first edition was 1907, the book itself is the second, dated 1909.