Two Years on Trek

The subtitle makes clear the subject of this book, Some Account of the Royal Sussex Regiment In South Africa. This is the story of the 1st R Sussex in which the author served and which arrived in S Africa in April 1900. Du Moulin’s narrative takes the action up to the end of December 1900 which he wrote up during a quiet spell while the battalion was providing the garrison for Lindley but then had to give up when he got command of a mounted column. He was killed in action at Abraham’s Kraal on 28 January 1902 having gone through the campaign from the advance to Pretoria, to the pursuit of de Wet and, after de Wet, the pursuit of the broken commandos without a wound or a day’s sickness. However, as it had been his intention to write a complete account there were his notes and these, together with diaries, letters and personal reminiscences of other officers were used to complete the story, a task undertaken by Capt H.F.Bidder who describes du Moulin’s death. In the appendices there is an account of the 13th Mounted Infantry Battalion which included in its ranks 70 NCOs and men from the R Sussex, and of the 21st Mounted Infantry made up largely of R Sussex personnel.