Boer Wars (Military History)

Introduction

In an effort to bring political and economic rationalization to South Africa, the British pursued a plan of confederation. An important step toward accomplishing that goal was the annexation of the Transvaal in 1877. In late 1880, the Transvaal reasserted its independence and war erupted. Shortly after the humiliating defeat at Majuba in February 1881, Gladstone’s Liberal government eagerly sought a way out of the conflict. Two inconclusive peace “conventions” followed. New problems arose later in the century caused by the discovery of gold, the emergence of German power in the region, the awakening of Afrikaner nationalism, and the aggressive political pursuits of British administrators. Attempts to prevent a second war were pursued half-heartedly by Lord Milner, the British High Commissioner. As the British prepared an ultimatum, Paul Kruger, the president of the Transvaal, issued one of his own on 9 October 1899. The Second Anglo-Boer War, or South African War, began with a Boer invasion of the Cape Colony and Natal which led to the sieges of Ladysmith, Kimberley, and Mafeking. British attempts to break the sieges failed and culminated in Black Week in December 1899. Salisbury’s government struck back in the new year. Lord Roberts took command of a much larger force, strengthened by British volunteers and imperial troops, and drove through the Boer Republics. As the Boers embraced insurgency tactics, the conventional phase of the war came to an end. Lord Kitchener’s utilization of mounted drives and blockhouses, destruction of land and livestock, and the removal of civilians to concentration camps eventually destroyed the Boers capacity to continue the war. Peace came at Vereeniging on 31 May 1902. The scope of the second war naturally overshadowed the first in the literature. But important too were the growth in literacy and the drop in publishing costs. Whereas published memoirs and diaries trickled out after the first war, Great Britain witnessed a flood of literature even before the war had ended. Conan Doyle’s The Great Boer War was a bestseller and there was great interest in Leo Amery’s enormous project, The Times History of the War. Texts written in English vastly outnumbered those in Dutch and Afrikaans. Although historians, showed continued interest in the war, it was not until the late 1970s that the production of quality scholarship, based on careful analysis of primary sources and exploring topics other than battles and leadership, became the norm. The centennial brought a resurgence of interest in the war and with it lots of fine new scholarship.

General Overviews

It should come as no surprise that in an era of increased literacy, modern production techniques, professional war correspondents, and a largely nationalist public craving stories about the war, that there would be a number of volumes published even before the conflict came to an end. Many more came out in the 1900s and certainly by 1910 the British market had been saturated. These books are mixed in their quality but generally display strong biases and almost exclusively center around military events. Texts originating in Great Britain greatly outnumber those published in South Africa. By the late 1970s, academics were starting to replace journalists and popular writers as the major producers of literature on the war. New areas of study were investigated and the quality of scholarship improved dramatically.

Early Works

Of all the accounts of the war, Amery 1907 and Maurice and Grant 1906–1910 provide the most detail. Scholars need to be careful of the interpretations of the events which these volumes offer for the editors and authors had political axes to grind. In Afrikaans, Breytenbach 1960–1996 offers a history of part of the war through the lens of Afrikaner nationalist historiography. An official German account appeared between 1904 and 1906. There are a number of works like Conan Doyle 1903 and Cunliffe 1901–1904 which offer strongly pro-British narratives. Some one-volume works grounded in solid research began to appear in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s like Kruger 1959 and Belfield 1975.

Amery, L. S., ed. The Times History of the War in South Africa 1899–1902. 7 vols. London: Sampson Low, Marston, 1907.
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Leo Amery edited this seven-volume series a few years after the war concluded in the midst of debates over army reform and national service. Relying upon selected key participants in the war for much of his information, like Roberts and Kitchener, the information can be viewed as largely propagandist in nature. Very critical of Wolseley’s ring, including Buller. Nevertheless, the volumes contain vital information for understanding the military events of the war.
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Belfield, Eversley. The Boer War. Hamden, CT: Archon, 1975.
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Although concise, Belfield’s work is one of the best single-volume overviews of the Boer War written during the 1970s. It is based on printed materials and contains no citations, yet it provides a very useful introduction to the study of the campaigns and battles of the war.
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Breytenbach, J. H. Die Geskiedenis, van die Tweede Vryheidsoolog in Suid-Afrika, 1899–1902. 6 vols. Pretoria, South Africa: Staatsdrukker, 1960–1996.
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Still uncompleted at the time of his death, Breytenbach’s volumes written (in Afrikaans) over a thirty-year period, cover the war up to mid-1900 in great detail. The volumes serve as useful references for most aspects of the war. As is the case for many of his other works on the South African War, most critics compare his pro-Boer bias to the pro-British biases of early-20th-century works like those written by Amery and Maurice.
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Conan Doyle, Arthur. The Great Boer War. 16th ed. London: Thomas Nelson, 1903.
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Written by the creator of Sherlock Holmes, this was perhaps the most widely read work on the war in Great Britain. It was published in multiple editions and Conan Doyle’s interpretation of the events became widely held in Britain. Despite the difficulties of the conflict, Conan Doyle had great admiration for the British government and the army and held firmly to the belief in the moral justice of going to war.
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Cunliffe, Foster H. E. History of the Boer War. 2 vols. London: Methuen, 1901–1904.
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There were a number of popular narratives of the war published in Great Britain during and immediately after the war. Like many of these, Cunliffe’s volumes provide scholars with dates, places, numbers, and occasionally some analysis. They tend to be hyper-nationalist and sometimes have a political axe to grind. Cunliffe follows the war up through the fall of Bloemfontein.
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Kruger, Rayne. Good-Bye Dolly Gray: The Story of the Boer War. New York: J.B. Lippincott, 1959.
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An English-language account written by an Afrikaner, it was one of the best single-volume campaign histories of the war when it was published. As is often the case, emphasis was placed on the opening phase of set-piece battles and limited space was dedicated to the last year and a half of the war. It is lacking in notes and bibliography, but it has held up as a strong, popular account of the war.
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Maurice, Frederick, and M. H. Grant. (Official) History of the War in South Africa, 1899–1902. 4 vols. London: Hurst and Blackwood, 1906–1910.
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These four volumes contain the biases one should expect from an “Official History.” However, along with the Times History (Amery 1907), this entry offers the most complete and detailed military history of the British side of the conflict. Those working on issues related to the Boer War effort still need to consult this work, but will be required to gather information elsewhere.
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The War in South Africa, A German Official Account. Translated by W. H. Waters. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1904.
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This volume and the second, published two years later and translated by Herbert Du Cane, provide a straightforward account of the battles of the war. Like the volumes of Amery and Maurice, they do not stray too much from chronicling the military episodes of the conflict. This volume ends with the Battle of Paardeberg.
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Published after 1975

Popular accounts of the war like Pakenham 1979 and Farwell 1976 raised the bar considerably, taking primary sources more seriously and providing new analyses to older historical issues. Lee 1985 told the story of the war through photographs and concentrated on issues not typically examined in popular accounts. But more so than popular narratives, academic works like Warwick and Spies 1980 investigated topics of social and cultural significance and spurred on future research. The centennial saw an outpouring of scholarship concentrating on both largely traditional military history like Nasson 1999 and Judd and Surridge 2003 as well as the “new” military history like Gooch 2001 and Cuthbertson, et al. 2002. In addition to English and Afrikaans histories, there are several texts written in a variety of other languages including French, Russian, and Japanese.

Cuthbertson, G., A. Grundlingh, and M. Suttie, eds. Writing a Wider War: Rethinking Gender, Race, and Identity in the South African War, 1899–1902. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2002.
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An interesting collection of essays on a number of topics dealing with the social and cultural history of the war. Grundlingh’s essay on the National Women’s Monument and Van Heyningen’s chapter on the clash of medical cultures are particularly interesting. Bradford’s discussion on “feminized spaces” and the “gentlemen’s war” is very provocative. The collection does lack discussion of some of the broader questions typically associated with the war.
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Farwell, Byron. The Great Anglo-Boer War. New York: W.W. Norton, 1976.
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A very good, if not traditional, overview of the war. Emphasis is placed on British participants in general, and especially the leadership of Buller, Roberts, and Kitchener. The research was based mostly on secondary sources and the text was written for a popular audience.
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Gooch, John, ed. The Boer War: Direction, Experience and Image. London: Frank Cass, 2001.
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This work is a product of a conference organized around the centennial of the war and brings together works by a number of internationally recognized scholars. It is organized around three themes: political and military direction of the British war effort, the experience of its participants, and the representation of the war in the British press and art. Many of the chapters have been more fully developed into monographs.
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Judd, Denis, and Keith Surridge. The Boer War. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
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Written during the centennial of the war, the book is shaped by modern research and includes sections on the press, literature of the war, and the role of big business, in addition to a general retelling of military events. A popular account written by two skilled historians.
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Lee, Emanoel. To the Bitter End: A Photographic History of the Boer War 1899–1902. New York: Penguin, 1985.
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Lee intersperses effective images of the war in this introduction to the conflict. Although there is a lot of general material found elsewhere, there is good coverage of the guerilla phase of the war, the concentration camps, and the Boer struggle to “the bitter end.”
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Nasson, Bill. The South African War, 1899–1902. New York: Oxford, 1999.
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Updated and expanded in 2011 as The War for South Africa: The Anglo-Boer War 1899–1902, Nasson’s single-volume history provides a detailed study of the entire conflict. Although it centers on the armed conflict, there are chapters on the peace negotiations, British and Boer attitudes toward the war, and remembrance and use of the war in the 20th century. There are few historians who understand the war as well as Nasson.
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Pakenham, Thomas. The Boer War. New York: Random House, 1979.
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Pakenham’s book is rich in scholarly detail and anecdote alike and is a compelling read from start to finish. His attempt to remove some of the unwarranted blame on Buller is largely successful. It will certainly inspire further study on many aspects of the war. It draws from a variety of English written primary and secondary documents.
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Warwick, Peter, and S. B. Spies, eds. The South African War: The Anglo-Boer War. Harlow, UK: Longman, 1980.
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This volume’s essays discuss many aspects of the war from its origins, the military struggle, and Boer collaborators to the role of the Anglican Church, reconstruction, postwar British imperial policy, and Afrikaner nationalism. Although written by historians it was designed to appeal to popular audiences and it is rich in sketches, photographs, and maps. Although many of the chapter topics were more fully explored in the years after, it should be considered as the most significant launching point for the war’s current historiographical evolution.
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Reference Works and Historiographies

Although there are some historiographical essays like Beckett 1990 and bibliographic works like Hackett 1994 which predate the centennial, it was the one-hundredth anniversary of the war which stimulated a boom in South African War scholarship. There have been some very interesting articles challenging traditional histories of the war like Porter 2000, demanding the opening up of new fields of inquiry like Nasson 2002, and examining older works on the war like van der Waag 2002. There have also been helpful encyclopedic and bibliographic tools like van Schoor 1999, van Hartesveldt 2000, and Pretorius 2009.

Beckett, Ian F. W. “Early Historians and the South African War.” Sandhurst Journal of Military Studies 1 (1990): 15–32.
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Written by one of the leading scholars of the Victorian army, Beckett’s examination of the Times History of the War in South Africa and the (Official) History of the War in South Africa is required reading. He discusses the politics of the authors, their contributors, and the problems of the works and how the volumes were received in Edwardian Britain. He also references some of the other (British) contemporary literature.
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Hackett, R. G., comp. South African War Books. London: P.G. de Lotz, 1994.
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Hackett compiled covers from an extensive number of books published between 1899–1902. The volume also contains a very good bibliography of published and unpublished works produced mostly during the same time period. The majority of items and covers come from sources written in English and published in Great Britain.
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Nasson, Bill. “Waging Total War in South Africa: Some Centenary Writings on the Anglo-Boer War, 1899–1902.” Journal of Military History 66 (July 2002): 813–828.
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Nasson looks at how the historiography of the war changed in the wake of the onset of cultural history. He argues that historians have a much better understanding of the war than ever before and that the centenary helped “reconnect historical consciousness” with the war. Students of the South African War should read this essay to help explore the new paths that are ripe for further examination.
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Porter, Andrew. “The South African War and the Historians.” African Affairs 99 (2000): 633–648.
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In this piece, Porter argues that current work is neglecting how the South African War fits into the historiography of the British Empire and instead is focusing too much on microhistory. Porter worries that specialization in the field might tell us a great deal about local history but will continue to neglect the bigger picture. Although he examines some of the current literature, the essay mostly cites older works.
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Pretorius, Fransjohan. Historical Dictionary of the Anglo-Boer War. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2009.
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Pretorius has put together an impressive dictionary. Terms include military and political players, battles, arms, and places. Equal attention is given to both sides of the conflict and there are entries which discuss black participants, blockhouses, censorship, and the concentration camps. The bibliography is first-rate and extensive.
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Van Hartesveldt, Fred. The Boer War: Historiography and Annotated Bibliography. Greenwich, CT: Greenwood, 2000.
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Although the entries may be a bit brief, van Hartesveldt has put together an extremely helpful guide for scholars who want to do research on the South African War. There are almost fourteen hundred entries, a brief overview of the war, and a discussion of finding aids. It was very up-to-date when published but could now use revisions.
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Van der Waag, Ian. “Re-Fighting the Second Anglo-Boer War: Historians in the Trenches.” Journal for Contemporary History/Joernaal vir eietydse geskiedenis 27 (2002): 184–210.
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This thought-provoking piece examines how the war shaped the historical consciousness of the Afrikaner community and nationalist historians primarily in the years before and after World War II. It demonstrates how Breytenbach’s historicizing of the war as genocide continued to have an effect on Afrikaner academics even as most rejected the notion. Van der Waag argues that the history of the war is still relevant in the “new” South Africa.
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Van Schoor, M. C. E., ed. A Bibliography of the Anglo-Boer War 1899–1902. Bloemfontein, South Africa: War Museum of the Boer Republics and the University of Orange Free State Library and Information Services, 1999.
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This bilingual book is an excellent resource for further study in the field. Its entries are arranged into bibliographies, biographies, diaries, causes, general works, military history, prisoners of war, concentration and refugee camps, medical history, international relations, peace, and official publications.
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First Anglo-Boer War

The number of contemporary accounts of the war like Norris-Newman 1884, Bellairs 1885, and Carter 1896 are relatively few when compared to those produced by the second conflict. Still, these sources offer detailed narratives of the conflict. Butler 1899, a biography of Colley written on the eve of the next war, was an attempt to rebuild the reputation of Majuba’s most famous casualty. More modern volumes on the war like Lehmann 1972 and, in particular, Laband 2005 have stimulated some interest. There are some important monographs on key events of the conflict like Bennett 2001, an investigation of Potchefstroom. Van Jaarsveld, et al. 1980 offers a very detailed study of elements of the war in Afrikaans.

Bellairs, Lady, ed. The Transvaal War, 1880–81. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood, 1885.
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Sir William Bellairs was military commander and civil administrator of Natal and served as a brigade commander in the Transvaal during the war. Most likely written by him, though credited to his wife to avoid controversy, this long and detailed account of the conflict is based mainly upon official documents. It concentrates on the British failures at Bronkhorst Spruit, Laing’s Nek, Ingogo, and Majuba which Bellairs believed were caused by the British underestimation of the Boers.
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Bennett, Ian. Rain of Lead: The Siege and Surrender of the British at Potchefstroom 1880–1881. London: Greenhill, 2001.
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Based mostly on published sources and a few newspapers, Bennett’s story is about the ninety-nine-day siege of Potchefstroom. Written almost like a journal which bounces back between Boer and British actions and reactions, the book narrates the daily activities of both sides of the siege.
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Butler, William Francis. The Life of Sir George Pomeroy-Colley, KCSI, CB, CMG, 1835–1881. London: J. Murray, 1899.
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Butler was a key member of the Wolseley Ring and Commander-in-Chief of British forces in South Africa who resigned in July 1899 after several clashes with Lansdowne, the Secretary of State for War. He was labeled a pro-Boer by his critics. This book was an attempt to restore the name of his close colleague who he felt was unduly blamed for the British defeat at Majuba.
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Carter, Thomas Fortescue. A Narrative of the Boer War: Its Causes and Results. New ed. London: Macqueen, 1896.
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Written just after the conclusion of the war, Carter was a correspondent for the Times of Natal and later served in the Natal government. This volume is seen by some as the classic contemporary narrative of the war. Sympathetic to British politicians in South Africa like Shepstone, but critical of those in London whom Carter blamed for the annexation of the Transvaal and for the war.
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Laband, John. The Transvaal Rebellion: The First Boer War 1880–1881. Harlow, UK: Longman, 2005.
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Written by a distinguished South African military historian, this single volume offers the best general account of the First Boer War. It is accessible to scholars and students alike. Focuses on the military aspects of the conflict.
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Lehmann, Joseph H. The First Boer War. London: Jonathan Cape, 1972.
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Lehmann, who has written extensively on British military topics including a biography of Wolseley, offers a popular account of the war grounded in solid research. Readers will certainly be entertained and informed. The book does not stray too much from providing a conventional military history of the brief conflict.
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Norris-Newman, Charles L. With the Boers in the Transvaal and Orange Free State in 1880–1. London: Abbot, Jones, 1884.
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Norris-Newman had been a reporter for the Standard during the Anglo-Zulu War and was still in South Africa when the Anglo-Boer War began. He had written a narrative of the Zulu conflict and would later write one on the British South Africa Company’s campaign in Matabeleland in 1893. Somewhat representative of the popular literature of the war, though one might actually wonder how much time the author spent “with the Boers.”
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Van Jaarsveld, F. A., A. P. J. Van Rensburg, and W. A. Stals, eds. Die Eerste Vryheidsoorlog: Van Verset en Geweld tot Sikking deur Onderhanderling 1877–1884. Pretoria, South Africa: HAUM, 1980.
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Put together by the History Department of the University of Pretoria and written in Afrikaans, the work is divided into four parts: Boer resistance to the annexation of the Transvaal prior to the war, armed resistance during the war, negotiations and settlement, and how the war shaped Afrikaner nationalism in the Orange Free State and British colonies of South Africa. Usually overshadowed by the second war, the authors hope to get historians interested in revisiting the first.
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Origins of the South African War

The origins of the South African War were being discussed in the British press even before the declarations of war were made. Hobson’s 1900 place as an important economic theorist certainly gave his arguments some weight at the time. Robinson and Gallagher 1961 pushed the debate toward strategic issues and away from Marxist and liberal arguments. Porter 1980 and Smith 1996 looked at the key political players involved in British decision making. Early in his work, Surridge 1998 offers a valuable discussion of British military preparation and the relationship of Lansdowne, Wolseley, and Buller.

Hobson, J. A. The War in South Africa: Its Causes and Effects. London: Nisbet, 1900.
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Those familiar with Hobson’s works will know that he was an original and powerful writer but at times his arguments could be both crude and racist. The role of financiers and Randlords is paramount in his exposition to find blame for the war. His conspiratorial attitude toward Jews and his overtly paternalistic statements about black Africans will certainly cloud this work for modern readers.
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Porter, Andrew. The Origins of the South African War: Joseph Chamberlain and the Diplomacy of Imperialism 1895–99. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1980.
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Porter’s book is the best monograph on the origins of the war, though it is centered on Chamberlain and his tenure at the Colonial Office. The crisis is put into the context of larger imperial interests of the 1890s. The final three chapters deal specifically with South African events and the failed negotiation attempts of 1899.
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Robinson, Ronald, and John Gallagher. Africa and the Victorians: The Official Mind of Imperialism. With contribution by Alice Denny. London: Macmillan, 1961.
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Robinson and Gallagher’s classic assessment of British foreign and colonial policymakers and the growth of empire still has much to offer to our understanding of the two Anglo-Boer conflicts. British motives for war are framed as more reactive then part of a long-standing, deliberate policy. Economic interests are only secondary in importance. Interested scholars should follow this up with a thorough reading of Cain and Hopkins’s British Imperialism 1688–2000 (Rev. ed., 2000).
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Smith, Iain R. The Origins of the South African War, 1899–1902. New York: Longman, 1996.
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Driven largely by British political correspondences, the work examines Anglo-Boer relations prior to the discovery of gold and diamonds to the outbreak of war. Most of it, however, is dedicated to the growing tensions and Milner’s use of the Uitlander population in the aftermath of the Jameson Raid. An excellent political history of the origins of the war.
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Surridge, Keith Terrance. Managing the South African War, 1899–1902: Politicians v. Generals. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 1998.
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Surridge’s book is a very important contribution to the historiography of the war. Whereas there are many biographies of the key political and military figures, this text brings these two groups together and focuses on civil-military relationships. Careful attention is paid to Wolseley and Buller’s relationships with Lansdowne prior to the outbreak of the war, and Roberts and Kitchener’s interactions both with the War Office in London and the colonial governments in the Cape Colony and Natal.
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British and Imperial Forces

So much has been written on the military events of the South African War that it is extremely difficult to limit any selection of texts. The subtopics below have been organized by (1) works about a specific topic of the war, typically written by historians; (2) personal narratives, mostly published during the war and in its immediate aftermath; and, (3) biographies of key military figures, both academic and popular.

General

There are several key monographs written about imperial contributions to the British war effort including Miller 1998, Wilcox 2002, and Crawford and McGibbon 2003. Badsey 2008 and Jones 2012 both look at the South African War in the context of the buildup to World War I. Spiers 1992 examines the war in the context of the late Victorian army. Miller 2007 examines British auxiliary forces which supplemented its regular army in South Africa and Miller 2013 makes some observations about cultural attitudes that may have shaped British actions in the field.

Badsey, Stephen. Doctrine and Reform in the British Cavalry 1880–1918. London: Ashgate, 2008.
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To understand the deficiencies in British training and the force it sent to South Africa to defeat the Boers, one must investigate the role of cavalry in the late Victorian army. Badsey’s well-researched monograph examines cavalry doctrine leading up to World War I and sees the South African War as a watershed in its development.
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Crawford, John, and Ian McGibbon, eds. One Flag, One Queen, One Tongue: New Zealand, the British Empire and the South African War. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2003.
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This work contains several excellent essays on New Zealand’s contribution to the British war effort (as well as a few essays on other topics related to imperial themes). This is the best place to begin research on New Zealand’s troops and attitudes toward the war.
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Jones, Spencer. From Boer War to World War: Tactical Reform of the British Army, 1902–1914. Norman: Oklahoma University Press, 2012.
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Jones looks at the evolution of tactical theory and practice as a result of the South African War and how the conflict shaped reform of the infantry, artillery, and cavalry in the years leading up to the Great War. The book contains a brief yet interesting historiographical essay on British army reform as an appendix.
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Miller, Carman. Painting the Map Red: Canada and the South African War 1899–1902. Montreal and Kingston, Canada: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1998.
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Miller’s book is an important contribution to both the study of the war and Canadian politics. It focuses on Canada’s decision to send troops, how those troops fared, and the image of Canadian troops in Great Britain. Miller’s sole focus on the Canadian contribution to the war sometimes unintentionally exaggerates its role in the war. It is however a significant research project.
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Miller, Stephen M. Volunteers on the Veld: Britain’s Citizen-Soldiers and the South African War. Norman: Oklahoma University Press, 2007.
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Miller investigates British men who opted not to enlist in the regular army but instead went to South Africa as volunteers, yeomanry, and militia. He examines their motives, their service, and their experiences in the war. In the political wrangling over conscription which followed the war, the contributions of this force were at best neglected and at worst unfairly distorted.
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Miller, Stephen M. “The British Way of War: Cultural Assumption and Practices in the South African War, 1899–1902.” Journal Military History 77 (2013): 1329–1347.
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In exploring the question of whether there was a unique British “way of war,” Miller looks at late Victorian cultural norms and examines how these played out in the South African War. Specifically, he contends concepts of cosmopolitanism, political egalitarianism, and race shaped British practices in the war.
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Spiers, Edward M. The Late Victorian Army 1868–1902. London: St. Martin’s, 1992.
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This is the best single-volume account of the late Victorian army published to date. The last chapter discusses the South African War in the context of the British military system. Researchers should also see Spiers’ more general study of the British army, The Army and Society 1815–1914 (1980).
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Wilcox, Craig. Australia’s Boer War: The War in South Africa 1899–1902. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
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This is the definitive work on Australia’s role in the South African War. Wilcox’s research is very strong and his telling of the events will appeal to non-academics as well. More so than other books which focus on imperial contributions to the British war effort, this one examines the Australian effort within the context of imperial forces and not to the exclusion of it.
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Personal Narratives

Most narratives written by soldiers in the war are not particularly revealing. They offer much in terms of troop movements and encounters with the enemy. But there are some that offer much reflection. Because most of the volunteers were better educated than soldiers of the regular army, they are better represented in the literature like Barclay Lloyd 1901, Peel 1901, Ross 1901, and Josling 1907. Churchill 1900 and Fuller 1937 are perhaps the best known. Menpes 1903 provides very general information about the author’s life as a correspondent but is unique in its inclusion of watercolors.

Barclay Lloyd, J. One Thousand Miles with the C.I.V. London: Methuen, 1901.
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Of all the British auxiliary forces to serve in South Africa, none received as much press attention as the London-raised City of London Imperial Volunteers. Barclay Lloyd served in a cyclist section made up entirely of members of the Inns of Court. The author’s narrative, written while on campaign, follows his journey to Pretoria and discusses the disappointment of not being able to return home when the conventional war had come to its end.
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Churchill, Winston. London to Ladysmith via Pretoria. London: Longmans, Green, 1900.
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Churchill’s dashing account of capture and escape helped launch his political career. This is an adventure tale which follows his story up to June 1900 when he headed back to Great Britain. His story provides little context to the events he is involved in. Like most other first-person accounts of the war, it also rarely discusses others theaters of operations.
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Fuller, J. F. C. The Last of the Gentlemen’s Wars. London: Faber and Faber, 1937.
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One of Great Britain’s most important military theorists, Fuller was a subaltern in the South African War. This work provides useful insight into the responsibilities of a junior officer and a glimpse into the life of those who manned blockhouses and carried out reconnaissance. The title is clearly shaped by the wars to follow and ignores the suffering of civilians during the war which features little in Fuller’s account.
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Josling, Harold. The Autobiography of a Military Great Coat. London: Jarrold, 1907.
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Josling’s tale follows a great coat given to a soldier serving with the 1st Norfolk Volunteer Active Service Company from January 1900 to March 1901 when the “coat” left the company behind. It is a fairly typical narrative of a soldier who only reached the front after most of the set piece battles had been fought. It contains some insightful discussions on declining British morale and the monotony of soldiers doing little more than routine fatigues.
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Menpes, Mortimer. War Impressions: Being a Record in Colour. Transcribed by Dorothy Menpes. London: Charles Black, 1903.
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Menpes was an Australian artist who worked for the illustrated Black and White weekly. Although there is nothing special about the pro-British biased text, and one would be hard pressed to find dates or other significant data which provide an outline of his journey in South Africa, the illustrations are certainly worth a view.
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Peel, Sidney C. Trooper 8008 Imperial Yeomanry. London: Edward Arnold, 1901.
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Peel was barrister, who in the excitement and dismay of Black Week, volunteered for the 40th (Oxfordshire) Company Imperial Yeomanry. He saw his first combat action at the Battle of Boshof in April 1900. Peel’s narrative is slightly unusual in that it betrays many of his feelings in the war toward his commanding officers, the British government, and the Boers.
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Ross, P. T. A Yeoman’s Letters. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, 1901.
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The book is a series of letters Ross sent home between June 1900 and April 1901. No other work portrays the resentment that many in the Imperial Yeomanry felt toward the regular army due to their perception that they were assigned more menial tasks and given fewer responsibilities and less respect.
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Biographies

Much of the traditional literature of the war focuses on key military figures rather than the rank and file. Although biographies are plentiful, there have been several good ones written in the new wave of historical scholarship since 1980. Powell 1994 examines the much maligned Redvers Buller, partially redeemed by Pakenham. Atwood 2011 looks at Buller’s successors Roberts and Kitchener. Although not a biography per se, Wessels 2006 has compiled a number of Roberts and Kitchener’s correspondences. Miller 1999 looks at Methuen, the British general who lasted the longest in the war. Hunter 1996 examines the life of his great uncle. Jeal 1990 has produced one of the better biographies of the oft-written about Baden-Powell. Following in the footsteps of Farwell’s popular Eminent Victorian Solders, Corvi and Beckett 2009 presents a scholarly group of mini-biographies of some key figures in the late Victorian army.

Atwood, Rodney. Roberts and Kitchener in South Africa 1900–1902. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword, 2011.
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Atwood is a solid historian who has a knack for writing entertaining military histories. This book was written as a counterweight to Pakenham’s The Boer War. Atwood rejects Pakenham’s sympathetic attitude toward Buller, instead depicting him as an insecure and uncertain general, saddled by his past, and solely responsible for Black Week. His views on Roberts in particular are somewhat idealized.
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Corvi, Steven, and Ian F. W. Beckett, eds. Victoria’s Generals. London: Pen & Sword, 2009.
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Corvi and Beckett edited and contributed chapters to this volume which includes contributions from a group of distinguished international scholars. Chapters on Wolseley, Buller, Roberts, and Kitchener provide starting points for further research on these British generals.
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Hunter, Archie. Kitchener’s Sword-Arm: Life and Campaigns of General Sir Archibald Hunter. New York: Spellmount, 1996.
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Having served in the Gordon relief expedition and at Omdurman, Hunter arrived in South Africa shortly before the war began and within the month found himself held up in the siege of Ladysmith. He later commanded the 10th Division and left South Africa in early 1901. Written by his great nephew, the work, as one would expect, is quite sympathetic to its protagonist. Still, this is a good volume written about a late Victorian officer who has largely gone ignored.
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Jeal, Tim. The Boy-Man: The Life of Lord Baden-Powell. New York: William Morrow, 1990.
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Jeal has written a few well-received, popular biographies of Victorian and Edwardian notables. This one, written about the founder of the Boy Scouts and the “Hero of Mafeking,” is an attempt to redeem Baden-Powell’s character which Jeal feels was injured by historians who attacked him for neglecting the black population in Mafeking. Unlike earlier works, the author had access to Baden-Powell’s papers which only became fully available after 1977.
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Miller, Stephen M. Lord Methuen and the British Army: Failure and Redemption in South Africa. London: Frank Cass, 1999.
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Miller uses Methuen’s long career to examine norms in the late Victorian army and to argue that Methuen’s failure at Magersfontein was a product of his training and experience. Both a biography and a critique of the British army, Miller attempts to restore Methuen’s name as he examines his oft neglected service during the guerilla phase of the war.
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Powell, Geoffrey. Buller: A Scapegoat? London: Leo Cooper, 1994.
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Surprisingly, there are not a lot of monographs written about Redvers Buller, the first British commander-in-chief during the war, despite his long and impressive career. Following Pakenham’s interpretation, Powell seeks to redeem Buller. Those interested in Buller should also see James B. Thomas’s dissertation, “Sir Redvers Buller in the Post-Cardwellian Army: A Study of the Rise and Fall of a Military Reputation” (1993).
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Wessels, André, ed. Lord Kitchener and the War in South Africa, 1899–1902. London: Sutton, 2006.
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Wessels is a professor of history at the University of the Free State and has been engaged in the study of the South African War for over thirty years. This volume, commissioned by the Army Records Society in the United Kingdom, includes letters written by Kitchener to the Queen, the Secretary of State for War, Lord Roberts, and other British generals. The notes are very useful. Also see Wessels volume, Lord Roberts and the War in South Africa, 1899–1902 (2000).
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Boer Forces

The amount of literature, both popular and scholarly, which focuses on the Boers is much smaller. Not only are English written books going to reach a wider audience than those in Afrikaans, but most scholars trained in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the United States, have limited access to the research depositories of South Africa and little working knowledge of Afrikaans.

General

Just as most of the English written books on the war possessed pro-British biases, Afrikaner popular writers and historian displayed pro-Boer biases. In South Africa, these biases remained more firmly entrenched. Grundlingh 2006 broke with these traditions. Pretorius 1999 is a master work of cultural history.

Grundlingh, Albert. The Dynamics of Treason: Boer Collaboration in the South African War. Translated by Bridget Theron. Pretoria, South Africa: Protea, 2006.
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This book examines two groups: Boers who surrendered voluntarily and Boers who fought on the British side. It is a very detailed monograph and Grundlingh makes great use of both Afrikaans and English written official documents and personal records. When it was initially published in 1979, it was seen by many as challenging the established Afrikaner nationalist historiography.
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Pretorius, Fransjohan. Life on Commando During the Anglo-Boer War, 1899–1902. Cape Town: Human & Rousseau, 1999.
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Pretorius examines the daily life of the Boers who took up arms against the British. There are chapters on life in the laager and in the trench, religion, and interactions with women and blacks. It is very readable despite its great detail and significant use of primary sources, many found in South African archives which have been ignored by most English language researchers.
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Personal Narratives

Many personal narratives of Boers who served on commando have been published in English as well as in Afrikaans like de Wet 1902, Reitz 1929, as have those of Boer women de la Rey 1903, Raal 2000, and Theron 2000. Oberholster 1978, the journal of Jan Celliers, can still only be found in Dutch. Utilizing the collection of the South African Library, Schoeman 1998 has edited a unique volume of Afrikaans and English letters. An anonymously published account from 1901 of a foreign officer (Anonymous 1901) who served in the European Legion also provides a good look at the Boers.

Anonymous. Ten Months in the Field with the Boers. London: William Heinemann, 1901.
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The Comte de Villebois-Maneuil rose to Vecht-General in the war and commanded the European contingent fighting for the Republics until his death at Boshof. This account was written by one of his officers ([D’Etechegoyen] Ex-Lt. of General de Villebois-Mareuil) who had managed to sneak across the Rhodesian border claiming to be an Englishman going to volunteer for the British. It offers the perspective of a foreign volunteer who fought against the British in 1900.
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De la Rey, J. E. A Woman’s Wanderings and Trials During the Anglo-Boer War. London: Fisher-Unwin, 1903.
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The book tells the story of General de la Rey’s wife during the South African War. It is a very personalized tale with discussions of work, her children, and her faith. There are few military details. Her description of Lord Methuen’s captivity is particularly interesting.
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De Wet, Christiaan. Three Years’ War. New York: Scribner’s, 1902.
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This account of the war, written by one of the most creative and effective Boer military leaders, provides insight into Boer tactics, political struggles, the decision to embrace the guerrilla strategy, and why the Boers had to make peace at the end of May 1902. The appendices are very valuable as well.
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Oberholster, A. G., ed. Oorlogsdagboek van Jan F.E. Celliers 1899–1902. Pretoria, South Africa: Raad vir Geesteswetenskaplike Navorsing, 1978.
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This is the edited journal of the Afrikaner poet Jan Celliers. Its (almost) daily entries written between 31 October 1899 and 17 July 1902 contain much more than simple movements; they are rich in experience and thoughts about the conflict. It is unfortunate that the work has yet to be translated into English to reach a wider audience. The introduction is in Afrikaans; the journal, Dutch.
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Raal, Sarah. The Lady Who Fought: A Young Woman’s Account of the Anglo-Boer War. Cape Town: Stormberg, 2000.
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First published in Afrikaans in the 1930s, this account was translated into English for a new audience during the centennial. Shortly after the war began and her brothers were called to serve in a commando raised in the southern Orange Free State, Raal joined her brothers, experiencing bloody skirmishes, midnight scouting parties, and the hardships associated with the war. About half the text deals with life after the commando was captured by the British.
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Reitz, Deneys. Commando: A Boer Journal of the Boer War. London: Faber and Faber, 1929.
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Too young to join a commando, Paul Kruger personally intervened and Reitz went off to war. His tale is full of adventure and loss and gives the reader a good account of the chaos of the lives of those remaining on commando in the later stages of the war. Reitz, a bitter ender, went into exile in 1902 rather than making terms with the British. Very good for classroom use.
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Schoeman, Karl, ed. Witnesses to War: Personal Documents of the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902) from the Collections of the South African Library. Cape Town: Human & Rousseau, 1998.
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Schoeman uses the letters of soldiers and civilians to tell the story of the South African War. He provides brief historical introductions to each chapter and critical comments to link the letters together in coherent fashion. The volume contains letters written in English and in Afrikaans. It provides an excellent introduction to the war as seen through the eyes of its participants and onlookers.
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Theron, Bridget, ed. Dear Sue: The Letters of Bessie Collins from Pretoria during the Anglo-Boer War. Pretoria, South Africa: Protea, 2000.
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There are not a lot of published volumes of letters written by women during the war. Bessie Collins grew up in South Africa, raised in both the Orange Free State and Transvaal, and despite her English background had great sympathies for the republican cause. Theron edited the letters Collins sent to her friend.
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Biographies

For some Boer commanders, the South African War came at the end of distinguished political and military careers like that of Joubert in Meintjes 1971; for others, bigger things were to come as was the case for Smuts in Hancock 1962–1968 and Botha in Meintjes 1970. The lives of de la Rey, de Wet, and Viljoen are explored in Meintjes 1966, Pretorius 2001, and Meijer 2000, respectively.

Hancock, W. K. Smuts. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1962–1968.
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Hancock was co-editor of Jan Smuts’ papers and also wrote this definitive two volume biography of the Boer general and later Prime Minister. Much of the first volume is dedicated to his role in the war, his participation in post-war conciliation efforts with Great Britain, and the eventual Union of South Africa. Macnab’s 1975 book is a popular account of Villebois-Maueril’s career.
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Macnab, Roy. The French Colonel: Villebois-Mareuil and the Boers 1899–1900. London: Oxford University Press, 1975.
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Although there are a couple of introductory chapters on Villebois-Maureuil’s life before the South African War, the bulk of the book focuses on this French volunteer who fought with the Boers until his death at Boshof in April 1900. A work of mostly traditional military history, the book does look at the lives of several other foreign volunteers who made up the European Legion which Villebois-Mareuil came to command.
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Meijer, J. W. Generaal Ben Viljoen 1868–1917. Pretoria, South Africa: Protea, 2000.
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Written in Afrikaans and relying mostly on sources also written in Afrikaans, the author makes great use of unpublished documents held in Pretoria to tell the story of the Assistant Commandant-General of the Transvaal’s forces and recount his campaigns. The last chapter deals with Viljoen’s “Boer War” tour of the United States and his failed attempt to establish a Boer colony in Mexico.
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Meintjes, Johannes. De La Rey: Lion of the West. Johannesburg: H. Keartland, 1966.
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At nineteen, Koos de la Rey became the youngest ever Veldt Coronet and later became a political and military force in the western Transvaal. He prepared the successful Boer defenses against Methuen at Magersfontein and later captured him at Tweebosch. Meintjes tells de la Rey’s story, concentrating on his talents in the South African War.
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Meintjes, Johannes. General Louis Botha. London: Cassell, 1970.
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The author’s second biography of a Boer general concentrates on the future first prime minister of the Union of South Africa. Although there are no notes, Meintjes offers a well-written and informative look at Botha’s life before the war, his leadership and his struggle through 1902, his difficulties with Milnerism, his political ascendency, and his handling of the rebellion of former colleagues who opposed the declaration of war in 1914.
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Meintjes, Johannes. The Commandant-General: The Life and Times of Petrus Jacobus Joubert of the South African Republic, 1821–1900. Cape Town: Tafelberg, 1971.
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As Meintjes demonstrates, despite the lack of attention shown to him by historians and biographers, Joubert’s role in the Transvaal was second in importance only to Paul Kruger. He was the “hero” at Majuba in the first Boer War and was commandant-general in the second. Meintjes also examines Joubert’s role in capturing Jameson and his sympathy for the Uitlanders. Although the author gets very close to his subject, the biography nevertheless provides much insight into South African politics and Anglo-Boer relations.
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Pretorius, Fransjohan. The Great Escape of the Boer Pimpernel, Christiaan de Wet: The Making of a Legend. Translated by Stephen Hofstätter. Pietermaritzburg, South Africa: University of Natal Press, 2001.
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Written in Afrikaans and translated into English, the book focuses on the British hunt for Christiaan de Wet in 1900. It is as much an adventure narrative as a significant historical contribution. Although it glorifies de Wet to some extent, Pretorius does an excellent job analyzing the problems of the British occupying forces in keeping and extending order and the strengths of the fewer but more mobile Boers.
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Black Participation

For a long time, the South African War was mislabeled a “white man’s war.” Few researchers looked into the topic of black participation and there were few published firsthand accounts like Plaatje’s diary, Comaroff 1990. The role of black participation in the war, however, has been examined in more detail since Warwick 1983 and Nasson 1991 in several good articles. There are still relatively few monographs on the subject.

Comaroff, John L., ed. Mafeking Diary: A Black Man’s View of a White Man’s War. Rev. ed. London: James Currey, 1990.
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Most of the contemporary British literature and press coverage focused on Baden-Powell’s leadership and the plight of the British soldiers and white civilians who endured the 217-day siege. Sol Plaatje, who later helped create the ANC (African National Congress), was one of the over 7500 blacks who were also besieged. His daily entries detail the suffering of that largely ignored group. First published as The Boer War Diary of Sol T. Plaatje (1973).
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Nasson, Bill. Abraham Esau’s War: A Black South African War in the Cape, 1899–1902. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
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Nasson’s book examines how the rural African and Coloured population of the Cape experienced the South African War. It focuses on the daily lives of these subjects and their struggles and anxieties. It looks at issues such as labor, patriotism, identity, martyrdom, and resistance. It remains requisite reading on the subject of black participation in the war.
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Van Zyl, Johan, Rodney Constantine, and Tokkie Pretorius, eds. An Illustrated History of Black South Africans in the Anglo-Boer War 1899–1902. Bloemfontein, South Africa: War Museum of the Boer Republics, 2012.
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Containing hundreds of rich and detailed photographs and brief captions, the book provides an overview of the war with wonderful images of black South Africans typically not represented in most other collections. Although it may not be too helpful for scholars, it would be of great use in the classroom. The collection includes pictures of civilians and soldiers alike.
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Warwick, Peter. Black People and the South African War 1899–1902. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
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This work helped to reshape the focus of historians which had been almost exclusively on its white participants and had a great impact on the rebranding of the conflict as the South African War. Although it is brief and now thirty years old, it still has much to say on the roles of blacks during the war. It also looks at the problems of refugees and blacks in the concentration camps.
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“The Methods of Barbarism” and the Concentration Camps

Although the destruction of property occurred early on in the war and was carried out by both sides, it was not until the formulation of British policy under Roberts and, especially under, Kitchener to counter Boer guerrilla tactics that the nature of the war turned dramatically. Although these policies did help shape the Boer decision to surrender in 1902, it is also likely that the policies prolonged the war as well. With the British scorched policy came their practice of removing Boer women and children from the field of operations. These and other white and black refugees were housed in a network of concentration camps. Hobhouse 1902 had an impact on the British public and government. There has been increasing attention paid to these aspects of the war since Spies 1977. Coetzer 2000, Pretorius 2001, and van Heyningen 2013 have all contributed to the historiography and attempted to reach wider audiences. Changuion, et al. 2003 has presented the story of the suffering of the war through photographs. Miller 2010 and Vergolina 2013 have introduced new approaches to studying the subject.

Changuion, Louis, Frik Jacobs, and Paul Alberts. Suffering of War: A Photographic Portrayal of the Suffering in the Anglo-Boer War. Bloemfontein, South Africa: War Museum of the Boer Republics, 2003.
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As the title suggests, this book portrays the hardships of the conflict. Images of concentration camps and dying children, homesteads on fire, and the toll on horses and livestock show a population and country devastated by war. The photographs are compelling and at the same time horrific in nature. There is a limited introduction.
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Coetzer, Owen. Fire in the Sky. Weltevreden, South Africa: Covos-Day, 2000.
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The author, a retired journalist, has written some popular accounts of the war. Relying heavily on the reports of the Ladies’ Commissions on the Concentration Camps, Coetzer focuses here on suffering in the Orange Free State.
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Hobhouse, Emily. The Brunt of the War and Where It Fell. London: Methuen, 1902.
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Emily Hobhouse, the founder and major advocate of the South African Women and Children Distress Fund, toured South Africa in early 1901, visiting several of the concentration camps. Her report, her many books, and her active campaigning led to significant changes in the British treatment of the Boer refugees and a considerable drop in mortality rates. This book looks at the provisions of the Hague Convention, Roberts’ proclamations and orders regarding civilians, and especially the conditions of the camps.
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Miller, Stephen M. “Duty or Crime? Defining Acceptable Behavior in the British Army in South Africa, 1899–1902.” Journal of British Studies 49 (2010): 311–331.
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Miller examines the actions of British soldiers during the guerilla phase of the conflict and looks at the killing of prisoners, rape, looting, and other criminal activities. By situating military law within the context of law and the army within the context of service in the empire, Miller argues that historians gain a better understanding of both Victorian cultural norms and imperial attitudes.
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Pretorius, Fransjohan, ed. Scorched Earth. Cape Town: Human & Rousseau, 2001.
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Pretorius offers a collection of essays on topics which include the concentration camps, the Hague Convention, Boer medical culture, and the British blockhouse system. The chapters are very brief and well-illustrated and designed for a wide audience. Scholars will appreciate the endnotes and bibliographies which accompany each topic.
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Spies, S. B. Methods of Barbarism? Roberts and Kitchener and Civilians in the Boer Republics, January 1900-May 1902. Cape Town: Human & Rousseau, 1977.
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One of the most important contributions to the modern historiography of the war, Spies methodically examines British military policy under Roberts and Kitchener and the effects of their counterinsurgency on the Boer war effort and on the white civilian population. The title refers to a 1901 speech given by the British liberal leader Henry Campbell-Bannerman.
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Van Heyningen, Elizabeth. The Concentration Camps of the Anglo-Boer War: A Social History. Auckland Park, South Africa: Jacana, 2013.
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The author, a former research associate in the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Cape Town, has written a great deal on modern South African history and medical history. This work is one of the most extensive studies of this subject and serves as a much needed recent addition to the historiography of the camps.
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Vergolina, Joseph. “‘Methods of Barbarism’ or Western Tradition? Britain, South Africa, and the Evolution of Escalatory Violence as a Policy.” Journal of Military History 77 (2013): 1303–1328.
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Vergolina’s engaging essay argues that violence directed toward civilians was already escalating before the First World War, and he uses the South African War as an excellent case study for his thesis. He looks at how Great Britain justified the actions it took in the guerrilla phase of the war. Vergolina believes Western military extremism was the normative response when its forces faced off against an enemy which fought using unconventional methods.
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Other Aspects of the Wars

The citations listed below are hard to categorize but display how the study of the South African War informs other aspects of British, South African, imperial, and military history. Much work has been done which has used the war as a means to investigate British society. Price 1972 looked at how the war shaped imperial attitudes; Davey 1978 and Hewison 1989 examined opposition in Great Britain to the war; and, Krebs 1999 has used the conflict to study gender. Van Wyk Smith 1978 canvassed the poetry of the war. Regional histories have also shown how the war shaped local communities like Cammack 1990 and Boje 2010. Prime 1998 has used envelopes of letters written in the war as a way to explore medical conditions.

Boje, J. G. “Winburg’s War: An Appraisal of the Anglo-Boer War of 1899–1902 as it was experienced by the people of a Free State District.” PhD diss., University of Pretoria, 2010.
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Boje’s dissertation is a rich local history of Winburg. It looks at the men who served on commando to the end of the war as well as the women and black population who suffered during the British occupation and those who were relocated to concentration camps. He also attempts to shed Afrikaner nationalism from the story and demythologize the war to better fit it into identity formation in the new South Africa.
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Cammack, Diana. The Rand at War 1899–1902: The Witwatersrand and the Anglo-Boer War. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.
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A well-researched and narrowly focused monograph which examines Johannesburg during the war. It is a social history of the Randlords, Uitlanders, and black and white laborers of the goldfields and surrounding environs and how the war shaped their lives.
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Davey, Arthur. The British Pro-Boers 1877–1902. Cape Town: Tafelberg, 1978.
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Davey presents a well-researched account of British opposition to the South African War. He examines political and social organizations, religious groups, humanitarian concerns, and Irish opinion. Although unsuccessful in preventing the war or ending it prematurely, pro-Boer forces did much to counter war propaganda and convince the British government to drop its demands for unconditional surrender.
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Hewison, H. H. Hedge of Wild Almonds: South Africa, the “Pro-Boers” & the Quaker Conscience, 1890–1910. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1989.
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There are not a lot of published works on how religious institutions reacted to the war. Although most in Great Britain expressed some degree of support, the Quakers, overcoming some early divisions, were an exception and as such were labeled pro-Boers. The author follows their story and their participation in the relief effort through the conflict and up to Union in 1910.
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Krebs, Paula M. Gender, Race, and the Writing of Empire: Public Discourse and the Boer War. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511484858Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Based mostly on published sources, Krebs offers a feminist analysis on many of the themes associated with the South African War. She explores the jingoism associated with Mafeking Night, the controversy over the concentration camps (in Great Britain), masculine images associated with the military, and contemporary popular literary figures. The study is nuanced and effective.
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Price, Richard. An Imperial War and the British Working Class: Working-Class Attitudes and Reactions to the Boer War 1899–1902. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972.
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Although some of Price’s views on the working class response to Black Week and Mafeking Night have been rejected by many historians currently working on the war, the book offers much valuable insight into British class society at the turn of the century and the general awareness and support for the war that it displayed. A great work of early social history.
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Prime, Peter. The History of the Medical and Hospital Services of the Anglo-Boer War. Chester, UK: Anglo-Boer War Philatelic Society, 1998.
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The author uses copies of letters and stamped envelopes to illustrate this concise history. Most of its chapters deal with British services providing some very rudimentary information like the location of hospitals and names of doctors. Not much has been written on the medical services of the war in the past fifty years. Researchers should also see M. S. Stone’s dissertation, “The Victorian Army: Health, Hospitals and Social Conditions as Encountered by British Troops During the South African War, 1899–1902” (1993).
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Van Wyk Smith, M. Drummer Hodge: The Poetry of the Anglo-Boer War 1899–1902. Oxford: Clarendon, 1978.
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The author shares, analyzes, and provides context to the poetry of the South African War. Although most of it is in English, there is a chapter on Boer voices and one on international (mostly German and French) responses. The poetry, both good and bad, provides the reader with a good understanding of how opinions on the war were quite diverse and challenges assumptions on the popularity of the war in Great Britain.
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Peace and the Impact of the War

Historians have generally been more interested in the war itself, especially the conventional phase of it, then its end and its wider impact. Nevertheless, some quality scholarship has appeared especially since the centennial. Lowry 2000 and Omissi and Thompson 2002 looked at how those inside and outside of South Africa and Great Britain viewed the war. Thompson 2007 has produced a much needed study of Milner. Pretorius 2009 offers a brief but detailed examination of the peace treaty breaking down the individual decisions of Boer commando leaders.

Lowry, Donal. “‘The Boers Were the Beginning of the End’? The Wider Impact of the South African War.” In The South African War Reappraised. Edited by Donal Lowry, 203–246. New York: Manchester University Press, 2000.
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The final chapter in his fine edited collection, Lowry looks at the wider impact of the South African War on Europe and the United States, where sympathies were often pro-Boer, on foreign contingents, and on the aftermath of the war, particularly on how it resonated in India and Ireland. The essay provides keen insight and is supported by solid research.
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Omissi, David, and Andrew S. Thompson, eds. The Impact of the South African War. New York: Palgrave, 2002.
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The editors commissioned a number of excellent essays on a range of non-military topics dealing with the war. Emphasis is on the impact that the war had in and outside of South Africa both before the conclusion of hostilities and afterwards. Most of the essays ask questions which have led and will continue to lead to future research.
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Pretorius, Fransjohan. “‘Confronted with the Facts’: Why the Boer Delegates at Vereeniging Accepted a Humiliating Peace to End the South African War, 31 May 1902.” In Soldiers and Settlers in Africa, 1850–1918. Edited by Stephen M. Miller, 195–220. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2009.
DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004177512.i-342.30Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Pretorius looks at the suffering of civilians and the destruction to the Boers’ agricultural base at the end of the war. The chapter includes tables which break down the Transvaal and Orange Free State by district and sum up their holdings of grain, livestock, and horses. There are a few other important essays in this volume which discuss the war as well.
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Thompson, J. Lee. Forgotten Patriot: A Life of Alfred, Viscount Milner. Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickenson University Press, 2007.
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An up-to-date and much needed addition to the scholarship on Milner, Part 2 of this work explores Milner’s relationships with Chamberlain, Rhodes, Kruger, and other notables involved in the conflict. It also examines Milner’s position on race and his role in reconstruction. There is not much information on civil-military relations during the war.
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Commemoration and Remembrance

There is still a lot of work for historians to do in their examination of how the war was commemorated and remembered both in Great Britain and in South Africa, but Stanley 2006, Beaven 2009, and Donaldson 2013 have started the ball rolling.

Beaven, Brad. “The Provincial Press, Civic Ceremony and the Citizen-Soldier During the Boer War, 1899–1902: A Study of Local Patriotism.” Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 37 (2009): 207–228.
DOI: 10.1080/03086530903010350Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Building on and at the same time challenging the seminal works of Price, Hugh Cunningham, and John MacKenzie, Beaven examines how the South African War shaped the civic pride of Portsmouth, Coventry, and Leeds. He argues that local identity played a greater role than national and imperial identity to late Victorians and that individuals have to be examined within the context of their own local communities.
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Donaldson, Peter. Remembering the South African War: Britain and the Memory of the Anglo-Boer War, from 1899 to the Present. Liverpool: University of Liverpool Press, 2013.
DOI: 10.5949/liverpool/9781846319686.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The ways in which societies memorialize and commemorate war is a growing field of historical research. Peter Donaldson’s research investigates British sites and looks at those who organized, erected, and celebrated the public symbols. Donaldson argues that the South African War was a watershed in the evolution of civil-military relations.
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Stanley, Liz. Mourning Becomes . . . Post/Memory, Commemoration and the Concentration Camps of the South African War. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2006.
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An important work though some readers may be put off by the author’s attempt to put her own story into the greater picture and by references to 9/11 and the Holocaust. Stanley discusses how the concentration camps, Afrikaner monuments, and black participation in the war were used throughout the 20th century and are remembered today.