‘No end of a lesson’: The Boer War, 1899-1902

Small display at the National Portrait Gallery looking at the Boer War.

The display needed to be looked at in the context of the whole room as many of the characters from war had full sized portraits there.

It was good that it looked at both sides and pointed out things which started in this war like the boy scouts which began as a cadet corps of boys set up by Baden Powell. There were nice photos of two women who had nursed in the concentration camps.

However I just came away wanting a lot more! I know very little about this war. Maybe the way into it might have been that it was a precursor of the First World War and the start of a different type of warfare. It just lacked focus.

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