The Malcolm Riall Boer War Archive of material from Malcolm ...

Hammer

£5,000

The Malcolm Riall Boer War Archive of material from Malcolm Brown Bookey Riall who served as a Lieutenant with the 2nd Bn West Yorkshire Regiment in the Boer War. Such a detailed archive of material from a junior officer must be unique in its composition and depth covering the Boer War.
He arrived in South Africa as a Second Lieutenant and was promoted Lieutenant on 21st August 1900 and served with F Company. It is clear from the diaries that he was a proficient signaller (with flag, sounder, lamp and heliograph) early in his career with the West Yorkshires. By mid-1900 he was Company Commander of F Coy, though occasionally he was transferred for brief periods to command other companies of the battalion. These duties he appears to have combined with the duties of Battalion signalling work.
The composition of the collection is broken down as follows:
1. 1899, 1900, 1901 Cambridge & Co pocket diaries fairly complete daily entries (there are a few gaps) from 20 Oct 1899 to 6 Mar 1901. Primarily, Malcolm wrote brief notes in a notebook diary which he sometimes expanded into a fuller notebook diary. Examples of both types of notebook diary have survived, but neither series is complete for the period. The formal diary was written up from time to time, the intervals between each episode of writing up is not known, using the notebook diary as a base. The diaries mentioned an excellent range of places and some officers.
2. 81 letters written mainly to his parents, with a few to his brothers, with the first dated 24th October 1899 on RMS Roslin Castle headed paper on the way to South Africa, a journey which after 3 weeks on board, they were getting very sick of. Many of the letters have their envelopes, some contain sketch maps, or wildlife. The first battle map was for Brenbella 23/11/89, there is a very detailed map of Ladysmith and surrounding area, attack on Alleman's Nek 11/6/00, 1 letter written on captured Transvaal Government headed paper, another showing the travels of the Regiment etc. The letters end in early 1902.
3. Two books of Signals for the period May to December 1901. They record the messages sent and received by Malcolm and his team of
signallers in the field with the mounted columns of Col Bethune and, later, Col Lowe. Virtually every aspect of the workings of the mounted column is recorded in these volumes to the extent that the development of minor skirmishes is recorded almost blow-by-blow including casualty names and details.
4. Small handwritten notebook with Battalion and Divisional Standing Orders, including uniform requirements (must wear helmets between 6am and 4pm), complaints, picquet duties etc.
5. Range of maps including rare blueprint maps of the area to the south of the River Tugela and the scene of the battles for the relief for Ladysmith used by Buller and another is of the Rustenburg district.
6. Malcolm bought a 3 Guinea Kodak camera shortly before sailing for South Africa (he records this purchase in
an early letter home). He took over 600 photographs most of which were successful exposures illustrating all aspects of life on campaign. The negatives are in the Collection, each of them bearing a number which corresponds with the catalogue Malcolm wrote up. The films were sent back to England for processing. The 3
Photograph Albums seem to have been organised soon after the war's end. All the albums have the prints mounted four to a page and beneath each photograph is the catalogue number and a description of the photograph. Further, unmounted, photographs are contained in the Collection
and these also have the catalogue number and, occasionally, a description.
The negatives are a little over three and a quarter inches (85 mm) square.
7. 1901 printing of Kitchener's proclamation in an attempt by Kitchener to persuade the Boers to lay down
their arms. Etc.
The collection is being offered by Lieut Riall's grandson and has never before been on the open market. A rare opportunity to own such a unique collection of material to the West Yorkshire Regiment and the Boer War. The vendor has transcribed all the letters and diaries and would be happy to offer those transcriptions to the successful buyer. (See photos) (B)