Contains a guide to researching the records of those Australians who served in the Boer War, 1899-1902.

Since the start of the Anglo-Boer War today 120 years ago thousands of publications, written or typed reports and other creations have been produced to narrate the war events, express opinions on its origins, causes, course, results and legacy and on participants in the struggle. This process is ongoing, since the debate amongst both professional historians and interested amateurs on exactly what happened and why is still raging and new information on the war still crops up. The history of the Anglo-Boer War is truly a neverending discourse. As the author of a number of books on the war, I have consulted hundreds of both published and unpublished sources. Some were of limited value, but a small percentage of the published books were of such high value that they formed part of a small stack of books that found a permanent home on my desktop while I was in the writing process. Pieter Cloete’s The Anglo-Boer War – A Chronology, both the original English version and the enlarged Afrikaans version published in 2010, was always part of that stack. It is to me a privilege to write a foreword for the user-friendly and meticulously researched book. It not only contains a wealth of information but a detailed source list and an extensive index. There are few, if any, more helpful reference books on the war and thus represents an essential resource to anyone with a more than superficial interest in the Anglo-Boer War. DR JACKIE GROBLER Historian and author Recently retired after 40 years at the Department of Historical and Heritage Studies, The University of Pretoria.

One hundred years after the Boer War, the British continue to debate what went wrong, while the war has significant nationalist overtones in today's South Africa. This book examines changes in interpretations of the war and provides a bibliography of major sources on the Boer War, now sometimes called the South African War. The bibliography focuses on the military history, but also includes some historical accounts of the political debate. The first part of the book provides an extended historiographical essay, while part two provides an annotated bibliography of the titles discussed in part one. Historiographical questions concerning the Boer War are numerous. Discussions of military operations focus on the early use of modern weaponry and the effect of guerrilla tactics on a traditional force, while other historians debate the question of British military leadership and organization. Questions also revolve around British imperialism and the scramble for Africa. Frequently called the second war for freedom by South African authors, the war was the reason that South Africa, unlike other British colonies, gained independence without majority rule. This makes the war of continuing relevance to the turmoil in South Africa, the collapse of the minority government, and the continuing problems of the current government. This book will provide a useful tool for those wishing to research the war.

The South African War rounded off the British conquest of Southern Africa. Only now, a hundred years later, are some of the more baleful legacies of the war being addressed. This new history is an up-to-date account of the military struggle in South Africa including the whole web of miscalculations and shattered illusions that surrounded it which spread far beyond the battlefields.

This exciting new book marks a major shift in the study of the South African War. It turns attention from the war's much debated causes onto its more neglected consequences. An international team of scholars explores the myriad legacies of the war - for South Africa, for Britain, for the Empire and beyond. The extensive introduction sets the contributions in context, and the elegant afterword offers thought-provoking reflections on their cumulative significance.

The British Expeditionary Force at the start of World War I was tiny by the standards of the other belligerent powers. Yet, when deployed to France in 1914, it prevailed against the German army because of its professionalism and tactical skill, strengths developed through hard lessons learned a dozen years earlier. In October 1899, the British went to war against the South African Boer republics of Transvaal and Orange Free State, expecting little resistance. A string of early defeats in the Boer War shook the military’s confidence. Historian Spencer Jones focuses on this bitter combat experience in From Boer War to World War, showing how it crucially shaped the British Army’s tactical development in the years that followed. Before the British Army faced the Boer republics, an aura of complacency had settled over the military. The Victorian era had been marked by years of easy defeats of crudely armed foes. The Boer War, however, brought the British face to face with what would become modern warfare. The sweeping, open terrain and advent of smokeless powder meant soldiers were picked off before they knew where shots had been fired from. The infantry’s standard close-order formations spelled disaster against the well-armed, entrenched Boers. Although the British Army ultimately adapted its strategy and overcame the Boers in 1902, the duration and cost of the war led to public outcry and introspection within the military. Jones draws on previously underutilized sources as he explores the key tactical lessons derived from the war, such as maximizing firepower and using natural cover, and he shows how these new ideas were incorporated in training and used to effect a thorough overhaul of the British Army. The first book to address specific connections between the Boer War and the opening months of World War I, Jones’s fresh interpretation adds to the historiography of both wars by emphasizing the continuity between them.