TOPIC:

Hi, I am currently a student at Budmouth College, a school in the United Kingdom, and I am in the process of completing a project (which includes a 5,000 word essay) on the Second Boer War. More specifically, I am focusing on “How did the Second Boer War change the structure and tactics of infantry and cavalry regiments in the British Army?” There are a few subtopics that I am focusing on and these include, the structure and tactics of British infantry and cavalry regiments at the outbreak of the war, Black Week and the lessons learnt from this, mounted infantry, counter guerrilla operations and the structure and tactics of British infantry and cavalry regiments at the end of the war.
Any knowledge that you guys have on these areas would be great to know as this would help me out greatly with my project.

Ben,

That sounds like an excellent idea for a project and you have already identified the key areas for change that the Boer War identified. It has been said that, without the Boer War, the imperial forces would have been even less well prepared for the Great War. Others suggest that the Boer War helped the British to be amongst the most prepared of the European Powers, other than Russia, as the only power to have fought in a recent and modern war.

I have looked in the books on the site and most of those have a focus on the events of the War. The more official histories (The Times and Maurice's) do assess aspects such as transportation and the medical arrangements but neither goes into the realms that you are looking for. Volume 8 of Creswicke's work looks at the impact of the war on mining, tourism and agriculture in South Africa with nothing on the implications for the Army.

I will have a look and see what I can find.

Ben,

This article serves as a good introduction to the issues; scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za/pub/article/viewFile/375/411

This is a link to a doctoral theses on the changes affecting the British Army. Have a read of the abstract on page 2 and see if you want to read further. wlv.openrepository.com/wlv/bitstream/243...s_PhD%2520thesis.pdf

Could you ask your library if they can source a copy of this book? www.amazon.co.uk/Boer-War-World-1902-191...anders/dp/0806144157

Thanks very much for the information and the useful resources. I will definitely read the "Influence of the Boer War article" and "The Lessons from the Boer War" and search for the book in my local library.