The King's African Rifles

Gale & Polden, Aldershot, 1956. 8vo., First Edition, with frontispiece, plates, illustrations in the text and folding maps on Japon,  black regimental cloth, upper board blocked in gilt, gilt back, a very good, bright, clean copy in unclipped, mildly browned dust wrapper. jacket has minor loss to bottom head of spine.

'This huge work by Moyse-Bartlett stands head and shoulders above anything else ever written about East African soldiers. A superb book' (Perkins)."

The King's African Rifles (KAR) was a multi-battalion British colonial regiment raised from Britain's various possessions in East Africa from 1902 until independence in the 1960s. It performed both military and internal security functions within the colonial territories, and served outside these territories during the World Wars. The rank and file (askaris) were drawn from native inhabitants, while most of the officers were seconded from the British Army. When the KAR was first raised there were some Sudanese officers in the battalions raised in Uganda, and native officers were commissioned towards the end of British colonial rule.