First City : A Saga of Service (P/B Signed by Author)

private, 1000. 2nd Edition . Soft cover. Very Good/No Jacket. 5.75 X 8.25. Signed by the author and inscribed. p/b 207 pages, condition is very good, the rear cover has a crease. Minor edge wear. Inscribed *Presented to our Colonel in Chief His Grace the Duke of Montrose on the occasion of his departure to Scotland in May 1988. We commend to your attention Pages 182-184. We wish you and Lady Graham a safe journey and we trust that the links between First City and Montrose will last forever. Yours Respectfully Bruce Steele Gray Officer Commanding 26 May 1988.* Signed by the author on page (v). "In his valuable book The Armed Forces of South Africa the author makes the following observation. (Tylden page 89, para. 206.) "The Grahamstown and Albany men are the earliest volunteers under the British regime of which details have come down to us. As far as is known there is no continuity except that of individuals and families." It is the purpose of this history to show that there has, in fact, been that continuity of service and that the Unit known as the Graham's Town Volunteers, The City of Grahamstown Volunteers, The First City of Grahamstown Volunteers, and, familiarly, as the First City, can lay claims to an inaugural date far earlier than the now accepted date of 7th October 1875. In order to appreciate the story of service that this history will unfold it is necessary to realise from the outset that the eight Kaffir Wars that raged from 1820 to 1853 were, from the point of view of the Settler, one continuous campaign with sporadic outbreaks of peace.