THE BOER PRISONERS OF WAR IN CEYLON 1900 -1902

2 volumes. unpaginated photocopies of documents, original photographs of gravestones, colour photographs and a portrait of Dr Brohier, several press clippings loosely inserted in volume 2, modern half leather with matching cloth boards, brown title labels gilt on spine.

The work is divided into two parts. Volume 1 deals with the arrival of the Boer prisoners in Ceylon, descriptions of their camps, historical articles published in the Journal of the Dutch Burger Union of Ceylon written by Dr. Brohier, as well as a collection of handwritten mortuary inscriptions. Volume 2 contains newspaper cuttings relating to the Boer prisoners, mostly without the dates or titles of the newspapers noted on them.

Bound into the first volume is a letter dated 29 October 1976 written by Mr Nico Knipscheer to the Director of Archives in Pretoria explaining how he met Dr Brohier on a visit to Colombo, Sri Lanka. This letter accompanied the donation of original material from the Dr. for deposit in the National Archives. The originals of these documents collected by Dr Brohier are listed as being housed in the South African Museum of Military History in Johannesburg, File C 264, but according to the librarian they now appear to be missing.

Dr Brohier was born of parents of French (Huguenot) origin, and had a claim to an ancestry that made Sri Lanka its home from 1777 serving under the Dutch East India Company. As the time passed, it fell on Brohier, as the first Ceylonese surveyor, during 1910-1949 to make plans not only computing its length and breadth but also surveying the life and culture of its people from which he drew inspiration to form the backdrop of the bulk of his prolific writing.

This eventually brought him to limelight which culminated in his enjoying national recognition to earn an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Ceylon. His international reputation, just to mention one instance, made him an officer of the O.B.E. Having his education at the Royal Academy which was the founding name of Royal College he chose surveying as his profession, a trade then, neither familiar nor popular. He had the distinction to be the first Ceylonese Surveyor to join the Department run exclusively by the British Colonial officers.

During the period July 1946 to July 1947 five articles, written by R. L. Brohier regarding the Prisoners of the Boer War in Ceylon, were published in the Dutch Burgher Union Journal in Colombo.

Brohier said he roamed the country almost in its entirety for a life time with the theodolite and tape, but more so with a seeing eye, which I believe, many hundreds of his like had missed. Going further, with a discovering eye, he was animated by the singularity of a heritage of a people subjected to assault culturally, for many centuries by the domination of several foreign powers. Eventually, the nomadic nature of his Public duty, enriched with authentic and authoritative information on what he had seen and discovered, made into books, had the pertinent names, Seeing Ceylon (1965) Discovering Ceylon (1973) which caught my eye in the old Library of the Survey Department where I too was employed much later. I felt honoured, that by a stroke of luck, I happened to work at the very place graced by so illustrious a man. There are many more books to add to his complete list of works, including posthumous publications. http://www.infolanka.com/org/srilanka/hist/94.htm