This personal account of one officer's experiences in the South African War is based upon the letters, diaries, signals, and over 1000 photographs of Lieutenant Malcolm Riall. A signals officer with the West Yorkshires, Riall was just 20 years old when he embarked for active service in 1899.

Excerpt from The Staff Work of the Anglo-Boer War, 1899-1901: Embodying Some of the War Letters Sent to the 'Morning Post' From South Africa To My Readers, I feel that it is a little presumptuous of me to offer the public a volume on the "Staff Work of the War," and I am all too conscious of its shortcomings. But if my friends and critics come to the conclusion that in spite of its defects, it serves a useful purpose in setting forth the work done by the non-combatant branches of the army, then I shall feel my efforts will not have been quite in vain. I was induced to take up public writing in connection with the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1901, for the Morning Post, by a mis-statement that appeared in the Cape Times as to my duties whilst nursing sick prisoners of war on board the Manila in Simons Bay. My letter to the Editor correcting this error led me to give a short description of the medical work then being done amongst the prisoners, both in the transports and in the hospitals. At that time there were many deaths amongst them from enteric fever, and a feeling of uneasiness was abroad that all was not being done by the authorities for their relief and to combat the disease. My testimony had a decidedly reassuring effect on public opinion, as is proved by many letters that I received from both English and Dutch in the Colony. Since the last Soudan campaign my journalistic propensities had found no outlet, neither had I sought one in South Africa. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.