The personal AZW / ABW diary of Col W.J.Clarke.,OBE, St of St Stanislaus, cc NP

I will be happy as the custodian of my grandfathers handwriiten diaries, and other personal papers, involving, amongst others, his involvement and survival of the infamous battle of Isandhlawana, to provide to serious researchers details of these actions, as experienced by him.
Clarke was in Dartnell's 1879 patrol and acted, as a 19yr old as Dartnell's despatch rider and intelligence NCO during that action.
He rose later, under Dartnell's mentoring, to become Chief Commissioner, Natal police (NP).
After retiring he was appointed by Gen Botha to command, in 1914/15, 2 Reg SAMR.
His miltary career culminated, as part of Operation "Elope" with action in Russia close to Archangel, as the leader of a 7 man covert British MI operation, under Gens Furse, Poole and Ironsides in 1918/19.

Hi Barry. These are the type of post we long for on the forum. I guess in away we are all serious researches in on way or another. There's a section on the forum called 1879-anglo-zulu-war-historical-memorabilia. Would you not be willing to post the letter's and other documents in this section. It's a members section only. I'm not sure if you are looking to having these documents posted as a publication. Or for general research purposes only. I would expect nearly every member this form would love to see these the material you mention.

S.D

Hi Barry.
I agree with SD , many on here would be thrilled to read thse accounts . They would sit well in the thread SD
mentions .
cheers 90th.

Clarke evidently used his diaries as the basis of his 1893 history of the NMP and, subsequently, to chronicle the history of the Natal Police, the successor of the NMP, in a series of articles in the NP magazine, 'The Nongqai'. It was Clarke's records that were used by H P Holt in his 1913 official history of the NMP/NP. These accounts were probably no more than summaries of the diaries, which must be the fullest and most important record of its kind covering the history of a Colonial police force that has a record of service second to none.

Also, the successors of the NP were the 2nd and 3rd Regiments of the South African Mounted Rifles and their histories are not recorded in any detail. I presume that Clarke's diaries will fill at least part of this gap in South African military history.

Making these diaries available for research is a singular event for historians and Barry is to be commended for his generous offer. Using them for a book on Clarke himself is one obvious use for the diaries. Clarke was the NMP/NP/SAMR's most highly decorated officer and he had personal experience of almost the entire period of their existence, so he deserves to be memorialised in a book.

Regards and a special thanks to Barry.
Brett