ABSTRACT
Volunteering for the Boer War is an interesting phenomenon which will be examined in this chapter in the light of contemporary assumptions about its relationship to social class and patriotism. Where it has been possible to procure statistical facts they have been used but they are, on the whole, fragmentary for this period. The Annual Report of the British Army failed to appear in the years 1899, 1900, 1901 because of the ‘pressure of war’. It was explained thatunits engaged in active service could not supply the information required, nor, considering the manner [in] which . . . they were divided up, would the information have been accurate’. 1 As an illustration of the dislocation caused by thisfrontier war’, this is interesting, but to the social historian it means the frustration of not being able to conduct any survey, limited or detailed, into the regular army at a time when such a survey would be of much value. Fortunately, the Reports of the Inspector-General of Recruiting to some extent fill the gap but it does mean that detailed analysis is impossible. Regular-army records, then, are virtually nonexistent for this period.
