TOPIC:

Back in 2016, DNW printed an excerpt from this article but I have been unable to locate the full text.

Has anyone come across it please?

Hi Dave,
Sorry that I can't help you with tracking down the above article, but I will attach a few relevant newspaper articles that might give you some food for thought.....







Trev

That is very helpful. Many thanks, Trev.

The British newspapers of 3rd & 4th May 1900 contain numerous articles either entitled "How Mafeking is Fed" or containing the phrase "how Mafeking is being fed". They are based on an interview by a war correspondent with the Capt Ryan mentioned in Trev's first article. A few are short but most are long and some, like the attached example, even longer than Trev's and split across two issues of the paper on consecutive days. Attached pages from Liverpool Daily Post on 3rd & 4th May - the first day goes just on to a second page hence the 3 pages. There are numerous other articles referring to the issue of food during the Mafeking siege and studying them could constitute a lifetime's work.

Unfortunately, there seems to have been a loss of definition during the downloading process and I suspect you will struggle to read them.

Mafeking hard-baked horse oat bread (siege biscuit), in cardboard box inscribed: "Mafeking Bread / The Siege of Mafeking, / South Africa". Brought back to England by Surgeon-Major Louis Edward Anderson, R.A.M.C. Surgeon-Major Louis Edward Anderson served with the Royal Army Medical Corps, receiving the QSA with clasps for Defence of Mafeking & Transvaal and the KSA with clasps for South Africa 1901 & South Africa 1902. Note in remarks column of QSA roll reads: "M.O. Protectorate Regiment". He was Principal Medical Officer during the siege of Mafeking.

"At first a pound and then a quarter of a pound of biscuit was allowed the garrison, and this biscuit, largely made of oats crushed with the husks, was so indigestible that it caused epidemics of dysentery."








.Detail, showing the indigestible husks that caused “a good deal of illness” (see below)



Gloucestershire Echo, 25th April 1900 (Lady Sarah Wilson)

SICKNESS IN MAFEKING.

MALADIES CAUSED BY EATING SIEGE BREAD.

Mafeking, Monday 9.
Our bread is now made entirely of oats, and is full of husks, which causes a good deal of illness. There are many cases of nervous prostration among the garrison, as well as malarial typhoid.


Bristol Mercury, 23rd July 1900 (Rev W.H. Weekes, Rector of Mafeking)

In the latter stages of the siege horse flesh became an article of diet, and the rations were gradually cut down, while the supply of meat was augmented by a mixture of flour ground from the oats intended for the use of the horses. The mixture was not an attractive one, and the bread made from it was of dark brown colour, heavy, bitter, and full of sharp husks.


Mafeking Mail, 8th January 1900

Bread Rations. – The 1-lb bread ration will, from the 10th instant inclusive, be reduced to three quarters of a lb. per man. The ration to women will remain as heretofore, namely: half a lb. for each woman; one quarter lb. for children of fourteen years of age and under. By order, E.H. Cecil, Major, Chief Staff Officer.


Mafeking Mail, 31st March 1900

Bread Rations. – The issue of “A.S. Biscuits” will be made on Monday and Tuesday next, the 2nd and 3rd April.


Mafeking Mail, 14th April 1900

Bread Rations. – With reference to General Order No. 4, of the 11th April, 1900 the Bread or Biscuit Ration will be 6 oz. per diem.


Mafeking Mail, 23rd April 1900

SOWENS

On “biscuit” or “wall placque” days, wrap one in a piece of cloth or paper, smash it with a stone, grate it or pulverise it somehow, mix it with a pint of sowens; put some fat in a frying pan, half an inch deep at least, the more the better, it won’t be wasted, you can use it next day. Wait till it boils, pour in the sowen and biscuit, not a lot at a time, separated single tablespoonfuls are handier to turn over, directly the fritter looks “set” turn it over brow [sic?] that side, and with a pinch of salt siege fare won’t appear half so bad. L.E. (Mrs) Whales.


Mafeking Mail, 28th April 1900

Rations. – (a) Bread. It is regretted that, owing to some portion of the corn not being up to sample, the bread for the past two days has been a husky kind. This will be rectified in the future.
(b) White Army Biscuit. When-ever White Army Biscuit is issued, the ration of same will be taken at 5 ozs. Not 6.





Major General Louis Edward Anderson CB, later Deputy Director of Medical Services Southern Command India.
Born 27/3/1861 at Roden Place, Dundalk. Educated at Dundalk School and Qualified at the College of Surgeons Dublin in 1881. Too young for the army, he sailed as a Ships Doctor for six voyages, 1881-84. He served in the Soudan Expedition December 1884 (Medal with two clasps-Khedives Star).Thence to India and served in the Tochi Valley (Medal & clasp). Served in the South African War as Principal Medical Officer during the Siege of Mafeking (QSA with two clasps, including Defence of Mafeking), KSA with two clasps, MID LG 8/2/1901. Surgeon General 1912. Major General in 1919. War Medal 1914-18 for service in Ireland until 1916, thence India. CB 1913.



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Some thought the bread worth preserving as a precious memento of the siege ....




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