A SOLDIER IN SOUTH AFRICA

207 pages, pictorial frontispiece and title page, 63 illustrations, sketches and sketch map, 1 general map of South Africa, red cloth with black title label gilt on the spine, a fine copy in the dust jacket now preserved in a Brodart protector.

Brenthurst Press Second Series no. 8

Editor's note. 'Lieutenant Eustace Abadie of the 9th Lancers arrived in South Africa on 10 October 1899. The next day the South African War broke out and his regiment moved northward as part of Lord Methuen's advance on the beleaguered Kimberley. It was at this time that Abadie experienced his baptism of fire at the battle of Belmont. The twenty-two-year-old cavalry officer fought also at the battles of Graspan and Modder River and later was present at Magersfontein when Boer commandos inflicted a severe defeat on Methuen's army. Thereafter Abadie was directly involved in the dramatic events which led to the relief of Kimberley on 15 February 1900 and the subsequent fall of Bloemfontein on 13 March. From mid-February 1900 until the end of the war he served on the staff of Major-General French who commanded the cavalry division on the march to Pretoria and beyond, and who later took charge of mobile operations in the Cape. As a member of French's staff, Abadie had men of the calibre of Douglas Haig as colleagues and he found himself close to where decisions were taken at command level. His position enabled him to meet the most senior officers - such as Lord Roberts and Kitchener.

'This is the previously unpublished story of one man's experience of three years of war, written in the heat of the moment. Not subject to any form of military censorship, Abadie's account of the conflict, the country and the people he encountered, is frank, critical and perceptive. Together with the accompanying contemporary illustrations, this work vividly portrays an imperial war at the turn of the century as seen through the eyes of an observant young cavalryman.'