Diary in Bahr-el-Gazal

Diary and letters from Sanders to his mother and sister, c. 510 pages, covering the period when he was cutting the Sudd and was based at Meshra er Rek, followed by his time at Wau and Rumbek. There is also a coloured manuscript map of the Rumbek area, on a scale 1/250,000. The papers are accompanied by a note on Sanders and the collection.

Alfred Harry Sanders (1871-1903) was adjutant, 3rd Battalion, Royal Fusiliers. He quartered at Cairo during the winter of 1901-1902, and joined the Egyptian Army as a Bimbashi on 30 January 1902. He was posted to 15th Soudanese Battalion, which he joined at Berber on 16 February, and served with two other British officers, Lt. Col. Sir E. Hill, Irish Fusiliers, and Major Hawker, Coldstream Guards, who left almost immediately to command X Soudanese. He died of blackwater fever at Marseilles on 9 May 1903, when returning home from leave.

Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).

Deposited on indefinite loan by the Hon. Mrs V.E. Butler, niece of Captain Sanders, 1962.

Includes index.

MSS 42

Donald H. Simpson, ed., 'The manuscript catalogue of the library of the Royal Commonwealth Society' (London, 1975), p. 83.

A catalogue of the collection can be found on ArchiveSearch.

There is a brief description of the collection in 'Royal Commonwealth Society library notes', no. 72, December 1962, p.3.

This collection level description was created by RAS.

Sanders, Alfred Harry, 1871-1903, soldier