South African Memories

Lady Sarah Wilson (1865 - 1929)

Lady Sarah Isabella Augusta Wilson was the aunt of Winston Spencer Churchill. In 1899 she became the first woman war correspondent when she was recruited to cover the Siege of Mafeking for the Daily Mail during the Boer War. She moved to Mafeking with her husband at the start of the war, where he was aide-de-camp to Colonel Robert Baden-Powell. Baden-Powell asked her to leave Mafeking for her own safety after the Boers threatened to storm the British garrison. This she duly did, and set off on a madcap adventure in the company of her maid, travelling through the South African countryside until she was finally captured by the enemy and returned to the town in exchange for a horse thief being held there. Dwindling food supplies became a constant theme in the stories she sent back to the Mail and the situation seemed hopeless when the garrison was hit by an outbreak of malarial typhoid. In this weakened state the Boers managed to penetrate the outskirts of the town but the British stood firm and repelled the assault. (Summary by Wikipedia)

Genre(s): War & Military, Memoirs, Modern (19th C)

Language: English

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 00 Dedication and Preface SallyMc
00:02:57
Play 01 First Voyage to South Africa SallyMc
00:18:34
Play 02 Kimberley and the Jameson Raid SallyMc
00:18:27
Play 03 The Immediate Results of the Raid SallyMc
00:20:11
Play 04 Johannesburg and Pretoria in 1896 SallyMc
00:26:35
Play 05 Three Years After SallyMc
00:23:30
Play 06 Preparations for War SallyMc
00:26:22
Play 07 In a Rebellious Colony SallyMc
00:35:40
Play 08 Betrayed by a Pigeon SallyMc
00:19:02
Play 09 How I was made a Prisoner SallyMc
00:38:49
Play 10 Exchanged for a Horse Thief SallyMc
00:26:02
Play 11 Life in a Besieged Town SallyMc
00:25:34
Play 12 Life in a Besieged Town (continued) SallyMc
00:22:45
Play 13 Eloff's determined attack on Mafeking SallyMc
00:26:02
Play 14 Across the Transvaal to Pretoria during the War SallyMc
00:17:44
Play 15 Pretoria and Johannesburg under Lord Roberts and Military Law SallyMc
00:21:21
Play 16 My return to civilisation once more SallyMc
00:31:11
Play 17 The work of Lady Georgiana Curzon SallyMc
00:34:50
Play 18 Fourth Voyage to the Cape SallyMc
00:49:28