The Boer War Generals

By Peter Trew. Phoenix Mill, Stroud, Glos., UK: Sutton Publishing, 1999.

Lt Col Harold E. Raugh, Jr., United States Army (Retd) reviews these books exclusively for DJ.

The 2d Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), known commonly as the Boer War, was Britain’s longest (lasting over thirty-two months), most expensive (costing over UK 200 million pounds), and bloodiest war (with over 22,000 British, 25,000 Boers, and 12,000 Africans losing their lives) fought from the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 to the outbreak of World War I in 1914.  New interest in this watershed conflict, the result of centennial observances and reassessments of its operations, leaders, and outcome, has spawned myriad new books and studies on all facets of the war.

One new book, written by South African-born and former UK Member of Parliament Peter Trew, is The Boer War Generals.  The author contends that the Boer War “witnessed the professionals of the British Army pitted against the gifted amateurs who led the Boer commandos.”  It is his intent to conduct an     in-depth study of the principal commanders on each side of the war, “in a conflict that was both ‘the last of the gentlemen’s wars’ and the first modern one.”

This book begins with an introductory chapter providing an overview of the origins of the war; the opposing armies and their weapons; and transport, communications, and medical care.  The careers and accomplishments of the three “professionals” who served as British Army Commander-in-Chief, South Africa — General Sir Redvers Buller, Field Marshal Lord Roberts, and General (later Field Marshal) Lord Kitchener — are then chronicled in five chapters (with Roberts and Kitchener receiving two chapters each).  Four chapters are then devoted to the “gifted amateur” Boer generals: Louis Botha, Christiaan de Wet, Koos de la Rey, and Jan Smuts.

While the Boer War is the central focus of this book and the Boer War was arguably the most significant, or the culminating, event in the lives of the three British and four Boer generals portrayed here, the impact of this book is weakened by each protagonist receiving full biographical treatment.  In essence, this book is a compilation of short biographies.  As a result, especially by chronicling the early, and post-Boer War, experiences of the seven generals, there is much irrelevant and very little new material included in this volume.  The narratives, which presuppose a considerable knowledge of the Boer War (even though a chronology of the conflict is provided), are workmanlike in nature, avoid controversy, and reveal a heavy reliance upon published works.  More analyses and assessments of the leadership attributes and demonstrated abilities and generalship of the protagonists during the Boer War would have enhanced the interest in and value of this study. Over a dozen generally superb maps, and thirty interesting photographs, provide a visual element to this study.

The Boer War Generals, while based mainly on published material and offering little new insight or information, is an interesting and factual presentation of the lives of the leading British and Boer commanders of the South African conflict fought a century ago.