WITH THE 4TH BATTALION THE CAMERONIANS (SCOTTISH RIFLES) IN SOUTH AFRICA

95 pages, 8vo (190 x 130), 1 sketch map, original maroon cloth, printed for the author, a very good copy.

With:

2 plastic folders containing about 54 documents, letters, orders, passes and items of ephemera relating to Colonel Courtenay’s time as Commandant at Boshof and which are presumed to have been used by him in the writing of his book. Included are Lieutentant Brudnell Murphy’s hand written report of his being briefly taken prisoner the Boers on 17th October 1900 while out patrolling, having gone to near a farm which thought not to be occupied by the enemy (page 35). A hand written translation of a letter which arrived under a “white flag” on 28th November Captain Jacobs, Chief Commandant of de Wet’s Scouting Corps. The translation is reproduced on page 40. Three Oranje Vrij Staat Post Noot, telegrams, records of various requests for payment by local farmers and tradesmen for services provided and the accounts of those settled by Commandant Courtenay, May 1900. A cyclostyled map of the defences of Boshop which Courtenay planned. A translation of General de Villebois Mareuil’s orders for the attack on Boshop on 4th April 1900 – Villebois was killed in the course of the battle. A letter from Lieut.-General Methuen, Commanding, 1st Division, dated 6th April 1900, instructing Courtenay, ‘..will without delay arrange with the Engineer Officer left at Boshof a scheme of defence of the town, which can only be taken by an attack at night. In order that he may look at the question from the point of view of the enemy, he is to read the plan of attack made out by General Villebois, and make up his mind how best to meet it.’ Villebois had anticipated a British force in Boshop of about 300 to 400 hundred men and discounted intelligence that it has been greatly reinforced by the arrival of Methuen’s contingent. This lead to his defeat and death.