HOPING TO SEE KRUGER 'IN THE CART' PEMBROKE (Sidney Herbert, 1853-1914, M.P. and Cabinet Minister, 14th Earl)

Autograph letter signed to 'My dear Graham', Col. Edward Ritchie Coryton Graham, b. 1858, Assistant Adjutant General in South Africa, saying he was delighted "to be able to do a good turn to an old friend, Bigge told me he had received the Queen's commands to write to you", he expects "most of the troops at the front have been indebted to you and your staff for what you have sent up ... I hope that the end of next week may see Kruger safely 'in the cart' ... the news from China diversifies our anxiety ... I have been able to run down here for Sunday, owing to the Khedive being too ill to land" in the Thames, complaints about the war have diminished "since Roberts' successes began", but "calling up Reservists, Royal Reservists, and embodiments of Militia" means "our Barracks are full to overcrowding", sending "some thousands of men on furlough. We have not got to the bottom of the British Army yet!", embossed monogram and coronet, 4 sides 7" x 4½", Wilton House, Salisbury, 23rd June neat blue pencil '19' over part of side 1, spike hole touching coronet and one word

The war had three distinct phases. First, the Boers mounted pre-emptive strikes into British-held territory in Natal and the Cape Colony, besieging the British garrisons of Ladysmith, Mafeking and Kimberley. The Boers then won a series of tactical victories at Colenso, Magersfontein and Spionkop against a failed British counteroffensive to relieve the three sieges. Second, after the introduction of greatly increased British troop numbers under the command of Lord Roberts, another, and this time successful, British offensive was launched in 1900 to relieve the sieges. After Natal and the Cape Colony were secure, the British were able to invade the Transvaal and the republic's capital, Pretoria, was captured in June 1900.

Item Date:  1900

Stock No:  53521      £225

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