Field Notes on how to defend Colenso during the Anglo-Boer War

A three page handwritten manuscript (undated) by Lieutenant R. Meyricke of the Royal Engineers, addressed to a Colonel, during the campaign in Natal.

"I find that I cannot get down to help you in defending Colenso. I could however put the Summer House behind the Policeman's house near the bridge into a state of defence... and I would clear away as much as possible of the shrub to the North West and West of the Station".

Meyrick advises the Colonel not "to keep so many men in your forts... Fort Wylie & Nicholson... I would leave 50 men in Fort Coylie alone... Your first line on the west would be your loopholed walls on the South West. Your first line should be in trenches cut on the brow of the kopie on which Fort Nicholson is placed".

Meyrick points out in detail where the trenches should be positioned and constructed which is illustrated via six sketches. He also advises on the positioning of parapets, machine guns and soldiers.

The manuscript is brittle and has discoloured. There are tears and small holes on both sheets. Text is legible throughout.

Lieutenant Robert Evelyn Meyricke (b. 1874), Royal Engineers, died of enteric fever at the Base Hospital, Pietermaritzburg on 8 March, 1900. He was stationed in South Africa before the commencement of the war, and served in Natal up to the date of his death. His name is inscribed on the Eleanor Cross War Memorial at Cheltenham College in England.