The late ColOnel Sir John Hall's The Coldstream Guards (Clarendon
Press, 25s.) brings the histOry of that distinguished regiment from 1885 down to 1914, and contains as its main theme the operations of the 1st and 2nd Battalions during the Boer War of 1899-1902. The narrative moves easily and clearly, for the operations it has to describe are simple enough. The two Coldstream Battalions formed part of the Guards Brigade in Methuen's army as far as the disastrous field of Magersfontein. They then took part in the shepherding of Cronje to the eastward, in the battles of Poplar Grove and Driefontein which preluded the occupation of Bloemfontein, and thereafter shared in Roberts's advance on Pretoria, which was followed by Botha's stand and defeat at Diamond Hill— an engagement fought not far from Bronkhorst Spruit of unhappy memory some twenty years before. With the capture of the Delagoa Bay railway the serious phase of operations ceased, though there was still left to the regiment plenty of work in helping to hunt down the elusive De Wet and in trampling out the smouldering embers of rebellion in the Old Colony. All these operations are described with picturesque force and orderly clarity, and it is pleasant to note that the author bears witness to the humanity constantly shown by the Boers under very difficult circumstances, and to "the statesmanlike guidance of such men as L. Botha and
Smuts." * * * *
Previous page
