Boer War silk maps

[debraanne]

hi all it has been long discussed in the family that great grand father had a silk map of south africa of mainly  orange free state and transval and had it with him the whole time while in south africa
trooper edgar clarence spender
3 bushmen contingent of south australia
i was wandering if the army would have issued it to him as standard  army issue .
I have rang canberra but they said they have know idea .
i rang australian boer war memorial in sydney and they know nothing .
Has any one seen one i  would like to know what it looked liked and the details

thank you in advanced
regards
debra

[km1971]

Hi Debra

You can find silk maps covering South Africa on Ebay and in militaria auctions. I am sure that men would buy their own. As it covered both Boer states it would not have been very detailed - try looking at a map of SA on google and zoom out. All it will really tell you is the distance between two places.

The army supplied officers with paper maps to those who needed them. One problem in the relief of Ladysmith was that Gen. Buller did not have maps in sufficient detail to plan his attacks properly. The (UK) Ordnance Survey was started by Ordnance men and Royal Engineers, and had a military man (or ex-military) in charge until 1983 - http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/aboutus/history/timeline.html

And Everest is named after the head of the India OS at the time it was measured.

Ken