Edited by Leo Marquard.

1967. Hard cover with dust cover. 140 pages. Very good condition; some rust marks in front and back. Cover has some wear and tear. Under 1kg.

When the Boer War began on 12 October 1899, the Rev, J.J.T. Marquard, Moderator of the Dutch Reformed Church of the Orange Free State, and his family were living in the parsonage at Winburg, a small town some sixty miles west of Bloemfontein. Four days after war broke out Marquard's wife, Margaret, began to record day-to-day happenings at Winburg in the form of letters to her mother in Stellenbosch and her husband on commando.

From 16 October 1899 till 17 May 1901, when she and her family were allowed to join her prisoner-of-war husband who was on parole at the Cape, Margaret wrote down an account of the events that impinged so forcefully on her life - reports of battles, British and Boer prisoners passing through Winburg, then British occupation, martial law, the refugee camp, and the humour and pathos that can be extracted from such a situation.

The letters are full of human interest and are here published exactly as they were written. Margaret's son, Leo Marquard, has added footnotes where necessary and has given brief account of the background, at Stellenbosch and Cape Town, from which Margaret and her husband sprang.