A jam tin of mosquitoes : a biographical reference to the men and women of South Australia who volunteered to serve in the South African Boer War 1899 to 1902

This is a new book, long overdue, but never-the-less topical in that it reveals our military history before the disaster that was Gallipoli. It is a biographical reference to the men and women of South Australia who volunteered to serve in the South African Boer War of 1899 to 1902. Over 1,500 of them, all in one volume with photographs and illustrations never published before now. There are comprehensive rural and urban newspaper reports of the time, letters home from the soldiers and nurses to family and friends.

These volunteer soldiers were the first ANZACs, the young men who built the reputation of the Australian bushman soldier, before the Australian Light Horse was formed. Many of them who went to South Africa as Troopers enlisted again for World War 1 as Officers and many of them did not come home. This book answers the question “Before Gallipoli, what?”