Born to Soldier: The Life and Adventures of Charles John Fairley [Paperback]

This book records the life and adventures of Charles John Fairley who was born into a family in which his father, grandfather, great grandfather and various uncles had all had distinguished army careers.
His father served in the Royal Field Artillery in the Crimean and Maori Wars, while his grandfather had almost 40 years of army service, initially joining as a boy drummer at the age of nine and then, from the age of 18, service as a gunner in Gibralter and Alderney. It was therfore not unsurprising that Charles John enlisted in the army at the age of 17.
He was stationed with the Royal Engineers in Singapore and Gibralter between 1890 and 1898 before seeing active service in the South African War between 1899 and 1902. Back in civvy street, it was not long before he re-enlisted at the beginning of the First World War, only to find himself involved in the fighting in France and then Salonika. He completed his army service in 1919 with the rank of Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant. In World War II he helped to train the local Home Guard.
The book details his life and adventures, often in a humerous way, until shortly before he died in 1956.

Joint authors are Charles John Fairley and Michael Fairley

Michael Fairley has been writing books, contributing to Encyclopaedias and publishing specialised trade magazine for 35 years, and was the founder and managing director of the Cowise International Publishing Group until 1988. He is now a publishing consultant and writer, particularly turning his interest to historical and technical books.

From Chapter 11. The War in South Africa

Things were now getting a bit rough for us. Our clothes were wearing out and we were down to patching them up with material cut from sandbags. And to make things worse we had no rations for a fortnight. The bullock waggon of fresh supplies was bogged down miles behind us. The only food we did get we foraged from the plains. Maize and, if we were lucky, a spring bok - a small dear about the size of a large hare when skinned.
To make matters even worse, we could not get any water now that we had left the river behind. The only water available was from puddles in the clay, which we had to suck up through pieces of rag to try and filter out some of the mud. It was a terrible, and many of the men were taken ill. Later the rains did come. Rather than solving our problems, the rains only added to the agony.
The only protection we had was a greatcoat and a waterproff ground-sheet.We were practically walking and sleeping in water all the time. It carried on like this for almost a month until the bullock train finally got through to us. What a blessing to have a decent meal again, even if it was only bully beef an biscuits - and, luxury of luxury - a pot of jam.