Lincolnshire Volunteer - Cecillie Swaisland

When the South African War broke out in October 1899 the British Army was seriously understrength. One of the War Office's strategies to overcome this was the recruitment, on contract, of members of the Volunteers, later the Territorial Army. Walter Shearsmith Barley of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, was one of seven members of K Company (Frodingham), 1st Battalion, Lincolnshire Rifle Volunteers, who volunteered. In South Africa they served mainly on guard duties behind the lines, but were sometimes engaged in battles with the elusive Boers. After fifteen months' service, Walter and his comrades returned home to enthusiastic local acclaim. Walter's letters home from South Africa, supplemented from local newspapers with news coverage and letters from other volunteers, present a vivid and often poignant picture of the conditions under which those at the bottom of the military hierarchy served. They tell of the ravages of disease, of long marches on pitifully low rations and of inadequate supplies of boots and clothing; but they also tell of the comradeship which sustained the Volunteers, and of Walter's enjoyment of the South African scenery and wildlife. Cecillie Swaisland gives the necessary historical background to Walter Barley's experience, and indeed draws some interesting historical conclusions from it, but her purpose and her achievement in this book is to allow the letters and other documents to speak eloquently for themselves.