SEA LION PRESS

By Gary Oswald. Members of the City Imperial Volunteers burn a farm at Frederickstrad. This left the guerillas unable to feed themselves, and starved civilians in their thousands. Picture out of copyright, held by the National Army Museum. As discussed in the previous article, the British armies in South Africa were firmly in the ascendancy during 1900. But as they advanced into the Boer Republics, capturing their capitals, they made only limited efforts to bring the Boer arm

By Gary Oswald. Boer commandos posing for the camera, ready to fight the British invasion. They had sympathy in Europe, which similarly posed and motivated black soldiers never did. Picture public domain, courtesy Wikimedia Commons. In October of 1899, after a long crisis, the two Boer states of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic declared war on the British Empire and sent their armies to invade British Natal and the Cape Colony. There is a great irony of the Se

By Gary Oswald. The London Illustrated News depicting "General Sir George Colley at the Battle of Majuba Mountain Just Before He Was Killed". Defeat portrayed as a heroic stand - something the establishment would to want to rectify. Public domain, courtesy Wikimedia Commons. William Ewart Gladstone, four-time Prime Minister of the UK, was an imperialist. He oversaw the largest empire to ever exist and that empire expanded during his time in charge. In particular he made the c

By Gary Oswald. One of the New Villages created by the British in Malaysia, where civilians were forcibly relocated to disrupt the communist insurgency. This was publicly known in 1950s Britain - how many civilians were treated by soldiers and police was known & recorded by the government. Photograph in public domain, courtesy wikimedia commons. If you spend any time at all online looking for people talking about the British Empire (and honestly if you're reading this, you pr