Letter written by Trooper E.H. Magor, Fourth Imperial Bushmen's Contingent, in the Transvaal, to T.B. Wemyss, Adelaide describing experiences in the South African War, 1899-1902.

On 5 October 1899, the Premier of South Australian, Charles Cameron Kingston, sought the parliament's approval for a proposal to equip and despatch a contingent of 125 South Australian volunteers to aid the British war effort in South Africa.

Public support for the British cause was significant: between 1899 and 1902, 1,169 South Australians served in South Africa in six colonial contingents, and, following Federation, as members of three composite Commonwealth battalions.

The experiences of the South African War did not dampen the enthusiasm of volunteers such as Trooper Magor who observed in this letter to fellow South Australian, Thomas Wemyss,
'War isent a very nice game there are better games than war but still I don't mind it I like it alright'.

Austin, Ronald J. The Australian illustrated encyclopedia of the Zulu and Boer wars, McCrae, Vic. : Slouch Hat Publications, c1999

Chief of Army/Australian War Memorial History Conference, (1999 : Canberra, A.C.T.). The Boer War : army, nation and empire / the 1999 Chief of Army/Australian War Memorial Military History Conference ; edited by Peter Dennis and Jeffrey Grey, Canberra : Dept. of Defence, Army History Unit, 2000

Field, L. M. The forgotten war : Australia and the Boer War, Carlton, Vic. : Melbourne University Press, 1995

Haydon, AP. 'South Australia's first war', Historical studies, Australia and New Zealand, vol. 11, no. 42 (April 1964), p. 222-233

Wallace, Robert L. The Australians at the Boer War, Canberra : Australian War Memorial [and] Australian Government Publishing Service, 1976 

Wilcox, Craig. Australia's Boer War : the war in South Africa, 1899-1902, South Melbourne, Vic. : Oxford University Press in association with the Australian War Memorial, 2002

Australian Light Horse Association

Events of 1901: The South African War [National Archives, UK]

Landforces of Britain, the Empire and Commonwealth See: Wars: Second Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902

Queenslanders in the South African War, 1899 - 1902 [State Library of Queensland]

Queenslanders on the Veldt : A Virtual Exhibition [State Library of Queensland]

War Museum of the Boer Republics