TOPIC:

Maria,

To be able to access the PIN files, your friend would need to register for a reader's ticket (registration is free) and then request the documents from the on-site store. After about 40 minutes, the documents would arrive in a box. The correct file would need to be located in the box. Then, your friend would be able to take copies of any relevant or interesting pages (probably all the pages!) using a copy card that can be purchased on site. The papers are returned to the box and the box returned to the counter to be sent back to the archive.

As SWB suggests, an alternative is for a researcher to do this work for you. I would recommend Paul Baillie (contact details in Contacts above) as he goes regularly to the archives and can locate this information very quickly for you.

I hope it goes well.

Best wishes
David

Thank you very much David, I will get in touch with Paul and see what he can do for me.
Have you ever heard of the Garden party in Buckingham Palace for the survivors of the Boer war in the 1960s? I have googled it and can´t find anything at all on the internet about it.

Kindest regards,
Maria

No, I haven't. Do you know the date?

My grandfather George Henry Burn of Solihull was also involved in this action at Kleinfontein. The battle is quite well described in Conan Doyle's The Great Boer War.
I wonder whether they knew each other. Sadly my grandfather died in 1927.
Ironically the name Kleinfontein has been adopted by an all white enclosed village near Pretoria.

Re Boer War veterans at Buckingham Palace; surely this must have featured in the papers of the day? Perhaps the PR people at BP may help and it would be nice if the attendees were named!
Regards
IL.

On the subject of the BP garden party I have been in touch with Stephen Dance who did lots of work with the veterans (interviews etc.) and acquired an archive relating to the South African War Veterans Association which is now in the National Army Museum.

He does not recall there having been a specific event for ABW veterans but reckons a number may have been nominated for an invitation over the years by the SAWVA, the Army Benevolent Fund etc.

Regards
Meurig