MY CHIEF AND I

First Edition: 327 pages, frontispiece portrait of Colonel A.W. Durnford - a laid down photograph, 2 tinted lithographic plates, 1 other photographic plate - The Camp at Bushman's River Pass, half calf gilt - worn along the edges and at the corners, brown cloth sides, marbled endpapers and edges, Miss Colenso added in ink on the title page, two bookplates on the front endpapers, the contents are crisp and bright, a very good copy.

Mendelssohn (Sidney) South African Bibliography, volume 1, page 356, 'Under the fictitious guise of a young soldier the authoress gives an account of six months' life and experiences with Colonel A. W. Durnford, who lost his life at Isandhlwana. The writer was evidently an enthusiastic admirer of the gallant soldier, and remarks of him that his " truly Christian life was as much honoured by those who came in contact with its influence as his heroic death by the world at large." There is a poem entitled  "Durnford," which appeared in the Cape Argus of April 5, 1879, and was written by Mr. T. W. Swift, also a portrait and some illustrations.

Merrett (Patricia Lynne) Frances Ellen Colenso, He Life and Times, MA Thesis, University of Cape Town, 1980, page 59, ‘Less well-known was her role as a staunch defender of Colonel Anthony William Durnford, R.E., whose controversial career in Natal was to end in the disaster at Isandlwana. Her pseudonymous work, My Chief and I, although only published in 1880, was written in 1875, as a tribute to Durnford after he had incurred criticism for his conduct of military operations at the Bushman's River Pass during the so-called Langalibalele disturbances of 1873-4. Behind her fight to exonerate him lay her frustrated love for this officer. Durnford was a married man, although separated from his wife, but middle class morality, both military and civilian, frowned on divorce and their relationship was kept from public knowledge as far as possible. Her deep interest in Durnford became known to a small circle of friends and relatives and to the military authorities, but it was not until the notorious military Court of Inquiry held in Natal in 1886, that her involvement in the case became public knowledge. It. is significant however that when she died, none of the obituaries explicitly mentioned this aspect of her career which was in fact pursued with passionate intensity.’