Some Notes on the Life of Major Patrick William Forbes - SIGNED & INSCRIBED

60 pages.

Printed for Private Circulation. Compiled by Lieut.-General Sir E. A. Altham, Colonel The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment) With photographs and Maps. Frontispiece picture attached of Patrick W. Forbes 1886. Chapters on the Occupation of Mashonaland. The Conquest of Mashonaland. The Overthrow of Lobengula. Administrator of Northern Rhodesia. Staff Officer of Volunteers, Southern Rhodesia.

Inscribed by the wife of Pat Forbes to the famous British coloniser of Southern Rhodesia, Sir Raleigh Grey. Dated 20th August 1929. (Forbes married Beatrice, the only daughter of Mr. Robert Grey, January 1903.)

A rare-to-find copy. Carton boards with a cloth spine. Inscription to Sir Raleigh Grey on ffep. Black and white photos of (1) Patrick Forbes, as frontispiece. (2) Officers of the Inniskilling Dragoons, 1882. (3) P.W.F. on trek. (4) Natives with telegraph poles. (5) Major Forbes, Staff Captain, Southern Command, 1914. (6) P.W.F. with lemurs; and at Duchess Close.

Patrick William Forbes (1861–1918) was a leader of the paramilitary British South Africa Police, who commanded a force that invaded Matabeland in the First Matabele War.

Born in 1861 at Whitechurch, England, he was educated at Rugby, Warwickshire and commissioned to the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons. In 1880, he went to Cape Colony and in 1889 he was made second-in-command of the British South Africa Police. Promoted to Major in 1890, Forbes went on to command the Salisbury Column in Mashonaland, and later he was selected by the British South Africa Company (BSAC) as the Mashonaland Magistrate.

In 1893, the First Matabele War broke out and Forbes was selected to command all forces in the region against the Ndebele (Matabele). He gathered a force of around 700 men from the BSAC. It advanced towards Bulawayo, capital of Matabeleland. In addition to rifles, the column was equipped with five Maxim guns, three other rapid-fire guns, two cannon, and 200 rifles.[1] On 25 October 1893, the BSAC camped in a laager formation. That night, at around 2.15 AM, a large force of Matabele warriors attacked. At the Battle of the Shangani, the Maxim guns proved crucial to defeating them. Around 1,500 Matabele died. Others committed suicide rather than return defeated. Forbes advanced towards Bulawayo, encountering another large force a week later, on 1 November. 2,000 Matabele riflemen and 4,000 warriors attacked Forbes at Bembezi, about 30 miles (48 km) north-east of Bulawayo, but again they were no match for the crushing firepower of the major's Maxims: about 2,500 more Matabele were killed. At this point the Matabele king Lobengula evacuated Bulawayo and burned it.

Condition: Usage marks on covers and spine. Foxing throughout book but none on the photographs or maps.