Lessons of the War: Being Comments From Week to Week to the Relief of Ladysmith
Spenser Wilkinson
Paperback
‘If I were a Cabinet Minister I should not sleep for the next few days, but as an irresponsible citizen I trust that the Boers will be shocked to find how much better the British soldier shoots in 1899 than he did in 1881.’
The Second Boer War, also known as the South African War, was fought between the British Empire and the Boers over the Empire’s influence in South Africa. While little discussed today, the war was the most expensive war the British Empire fought in between the Napoleonic Wars and World War I. The war was a widely followed event at the time and Wilkinson’s influential articles kept the British public informed on what was taking place. Wilkinson, being one of Britain’s foremost experts in military matters, made remarkably accurate predictions of military movements during the early months of the war.
Spenser Wilkinson, full name Henry Spenser Wilkinson, was a British professor of military history.