This is the first time that the Knolly Estate has allowed the great man's memoirs to be published. What follows is the fourteenth chapter of 'The African Adventure'.

DeVries Light Horse Part 2

'Your Commander’s a woman?' said Bertie, massaging his nose.


'Not just any woman, Bertie, a woman with fire in her belly, a woman with passion, a woman that’s a good friend of Mr Rhodes and a woman who wants to see the Boers scoured from Africa.'


I looked at Bertie and he looked at me.

'GREAT SCOTT COMMA WHAT LUCK EXCLAMATION MARK' he blinked


'I say you fellows, did I say something of interest? Bertie, are your eyes all right?'


I shook my head. 'It was your mention of Rhodes, do you remember that day he came to visit the school.'

'Of course I do Knolly, what a man, what vision, why I swear to this day he was partly the reason the chaps and I joined the Army, changed our lives he did.'


'Quite,' I muttered as I settled myself into the saddle. 'Now what was that you said about food and drink?'

His last words had made up my mind, up until that point I was pretty certain that we could tell him the reason we were in Africa, but now I could tell Rhodes had once again weaved his magic and gained another like mind. Bertie and I were now going to have to be very careful indeed whilst we dined and slept with the enemy.

'...come along Monty lead the way,' chipped in Bertie breaking me from my train of thought and off we rode up towards the ridge and the encampment.

Once on the ridge itself I was amazed, I don’t believe (even to this day) that I’d ever seen such an array of crisp white bell tents and gleaming blancoed equipment in one place. Everything had that new smell to it, everything including the men looked as if they had come straight from a review parade ground.

Bertie sidled up to me on his horse and muttered 'There’s been a lot of money splashed about to create
this lot.'

'Yes you're right, and if this is the sort of standard they’ve been set it’s obvious the horses to match have yet to be found.'

'Here, I know what you two are mutterin’ about, can’t believe your eyes eh ? I must admit it came as a bit of a shock to me when we took delivery of this lot. Better than some of the kit our lads are supplied with in the field back home. Still, come on the Colonel’s this way.'

We trotted off between rows of tents with Monty saluting this way and that and then we came to a halt in front of a very grubby looking abode, quite out of place with its surroundings but more to my taste, having that lived in look.

Monty dismounted and went in 'Colonel,' he called, 'we have guests.'

From within the tent came the sound of coughing and hawking and the inevitable sound of something being spat into a pail. A weathered looking man then came out of the darkness, blinking in the light with Monty behind him seemingly propping him up. He had the look of a man who’d lived life on the edge and was now clinging desperately to it. We dismounted and Monty introduced us.

'Colonel Hugh Nix, may I present Mr Knolly and Mr Harrison-Harrison, old school friends of mine who were in that balloon that we were watching earlier.'

The Colonel came forward unsteadily and gripped my hand to shake it, I was amazed at his grip for one who presented an image of frailty. He cleared his throat, coughed, looked around for a target and spat at a passing butterfly.

'Oh good shot sir!' applauded Monty as the butterfly span out of control.

'Knolly eh!' boomed the Colonel almost falling over at the sound of his own voice 'I knew a Knolly once, took her out tiger huntin’.'

I smiled at this and shook my hand free. 'Well sir, there aren’t many of us about so it may have been a relative of mine.'

'Hmmm, dem fine woman she was too.'

Bertie leaned over 'Wasn’t your Aunt Lettuce in India?' he whispered.

But before I had a chance to answer, the Colonel had rounded on Bertie.

'You sir, I didn’t give you permission to speak...silence in the ranks. Captain take this man and flog him immediately.'

'Now look here...' began Bertie.

At which the Colonel backed away crying 'Help, help he’s attacking me, get him off, Guards...GUARDS!'

Monty raised his eyes to the heavens and grasped the Colonel firmly by the arm and to me said 'Knolly....er... Lieutenant, take this man away.' and indicated with his other hand the Colonel’s current mental state.

I played along. 'Come with me, you're a disgrace to your uniform,' and grasping Bertie led him away from the while Monty ushered the Colonel back inside.

'The man’s barking!' cried Bertie once we were out of earshot 'How in heavens name did he end up the Colonel of this lot?'

'Just another question to ask over dinner, eh? And I’m sure if we don’t find out everything now we’ll just stick around until we do,' I replied.

Bertie nodded 'Yes, rather lucky that, dropping in on the very Regiment....'

He never finished the sentence for at that moment Monty came ambling up with his odd rolling gait.

'So sorry about that chaps, I thought some new faces might brighten him up a bit.'

'Has he always been like that?' I asked as we walked in the direction of what I hoped was the mess tent.

Monty nodded 'Oh yes,and that was one of his milder performances. He’s quite useless as a soldier, but it seems that Mrs DeVries owed him something and he makes a good figurehead for the Regiment and’s very good at discipline.' He looked at Bertie and grinned.

Bertie in reply just shook his head and laughed.

The officers mess tent was incredible, waiters in what must have been the regiments dress uniform swanked around a though it was one of the finest dining rooms in London, ice buckets gleamed and as for the chandelier...well. The food too was exceptional I remarked on this to Monty.

'I take it that Mrs DeVries believes that good food makes a good soldier?'

'Oh rather Knolly, unfortunately this too is also an experiment of hers, bringing a little bit of headquarters with us.Once we march proper like, it will be back to normal army type rations. Still it’s good for morale and has helped the recruitment drive no end.'

Bertie had his mouthful at the time so I decided to grab at the morsel of information he’d dropped

'What ? Um ....oh just a policing action , I can’t tell you any more than that, which is why I thought the balloon might prove useful for spotting and such like. Now, I’ve got work to do prior to us moving out tomorrow, make yourselves at home I’ll get one of the men to assign you a tent for the night and I’ll catch up with you later.'

'Come on Bertie, let’ go and see if the balloon’s arrived,' I said once Monty had disappeared outside.
'Dash it all Knolly, I haven’t even started on my puddin’ yet and it’s been an age since I had custard.'
'Bring it with you, we have to talk and sort out our next steps.'
'But...'
I held up a finger to stop him. 'COME ON!'

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