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Three Anglo-Zulu War Related Books - Any Opinions ?
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I've recently received a book catalogue, which contains 3 titles that I wondered if anyone had read.

The South Wales Borderers (The 24th Regiment of Foot)
by Adams, J.

The South Wales Borderers 24th Foot 1689-1937.
Atkinson, C.

Padre George Smith of Rorke's Drift.
Lummis, W.

Any information/views about them would be much appreciated.

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PS. I apologise if these titles were covered in the old forum.
Peter Ewart


Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Posts: 1797
Location: Near Canterbury, Kent, England.
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I'm sure Martin will fill you in on the two SWB books - the Adams effort is one in the series of Famous Reg'ts, usually about 150 pages and very brief & general, covering an entire lifespan of a reg't. (Gen editor Horrocks, I think). I have two or three in this series & they're OK for a very brief intro to a particular regt's history but don't usually go into much detail.

I don't have Atkinson, a considerable "standard work" I believe, but one or two on this forum certainly will. Not cheap.

Lummis's "Padre Smith" is a little "labour of love" by a former army officer (MC in the Gt War) & latterly a C of E priest in East Anglia, as a tribute to Smith. The author was nearly 90 when it was published in time for the 1979 centenary, and I think this may account for a number of the errors of fact which occur throughout.

Some of these are not too important, although overlooking the fact that Smith was still in England when Lummis has him in SA; the names of some of his missionary contemporaries in Natal are mis-identified and there are also some mis-transcriptions from some of the primary sources he consulted at Rhodes House. Perhaps most important of all, he asserts that Smith was ordained deacon & priest by Colenso, an impossibility which would have been clear from the briefest study of the mission field in Natal at that particular time, which, indeed, Lummis was writing about. Inevitably, some of these errors have been perpetuated by modern writers on the AZW who have relied on Lummis.

The standard lightweight accounts of the AZW current in the 1970s are re-used (and wouldn't pass muster today, even in brief) and virtually nothing at all was unearthed on Smith's early life in England, nor anything on his training for mission work. These gaps led me to embark upon research on his early life and his training, which happens to have taken place in London and Kent, and I have managed to complete a fair amount of work - much of it from primary sources - on these years, so that what I now have on his life and work covering, say, the early 1860s to the late 1870s dwarfs the scope and size of Lummis's book.

Smith was also a very well-travelled man thereafter, both as an army chaplain and during his retirement. It was only by a chance circumstance that he was attached to the column in 1878 in the first place & he very nearly wasn't there (which I suppose you could say for many people at Isandlwana or R/Drift). Although never admitted publicly, I now know for certain (as I'd long expected) that not everyone was happy at his appointment as army chaplain.

Lummis apparently did some very good research in military archives in previous years, but the Smith book is a very short, lightweight tribute containing a good deal of peripheral "filler" material & is still only 90-odd pages long. Copies go for about a fiver or so, I think - plenty of them about. I hope/intend to publish eventually my own researches on Smith, although whether anyone would be interested is another matter, as I have no wish to write anything on the defence of R/Drift itself.

Peter
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Peter

Many thanks.

I wasn't sure how many books were written on Smith and seeing this title among the listings made me wonder about it's contents.

You are right. The price is � 5.00.

If you have information that corrects mistakes made about his life and updates any other knowledge about him, you should indeed get it published.

I've got a feeling that I had the Adams book several years ago, but it is the Atkinson title that really caught my attention. Even with the small description about it in the catalogue, as well as stating it is an extremely fine copy, it appears to be a worthy addition to any library on this subject.

Again. You're right about price. Not cheap. (� 200)

If a title contains exactly the details being sought, I guess price doesn't really matter for a quality book.

However, I'm still trying to catch up with the newly-released titles as well as the older book about the N.M.P.

Thanks again

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Keith Smith


Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 540
Location: Northern NSW, Australia
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The Atkinson book covers the history of the regiment,as the title says, from 1869 to 1937. It is hardly surprising, then, that the Zulu War occfupies only one chapter, from p. 328 to p. 347. It is really, therefore, not worth spending that amount of money on a single chapter. The author himdself says that the information is largely taken from the Narrative of Field Operations.

Better, I think, to buy the Paton, Glennie and Penn Symons book, now in reprint from D P & G.
KIS
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Mike McCabe
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Atkinson is very much more balanced (in 1937) than Paton, Glennie and Penn Symons (in 1892?). There is rather a lot of huffing and puffing in P,G and PS which Atkinson sensibly discards.

MC McC
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Keith and Mike

Thanks for your replies.

I had been considering the title in D.P. & G., but when these two others appeared in a catalogue, I was unsure.

However, I think I'll stick with the book from D.P. & G.

With 3 new books ordered and paid for, I'm afraid � 200 is impossible.

Peter

Regarding publishing the information you've obtained about Smith.

Could you not see about getting the details published in an AZW-related journal/magazine, maybe over a few editions ? (small chapter in each)

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Peter Ewart


Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Posts: 1797
Location: Near Canterbury, Kent, England.
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Yes, that's certainly an eventual option. However, my researches on Smith are not yet complete; there are still some gaps (which I still hope to fill) in my knowledge of his childhood & youth, and I also need to ensure that my present opinions on his character and motives are reasonably sound. He was certainly a very remarkable young man but I'm afraid he has to compete with my interest in many other missionaries in Zululand and Natal, all the research & travelling having to be fitted in "as & when."

In recent years I've particularly concentrated on a young Zulu boy who was born in the 1870s & grew up at Isandlwana, being converted & confirmed at St Vincent's as a lad. I hope to "rescue" his astonishing life from oblivion when I speak for the first time about my research on him next month in Maidstone as one of KCC's events supporting "Black History Month." (Not many Isandlwana boys took their holidays in the Cotswolds -nor showed their English contemporaries how to study Greek or play cricket properly!)

Peter
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