
Luke Batterham
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CONAN DOYLE SEES HIS BOER WAR HISTORY THROUGH THE PRESS: from the reference to "9 pounders should be 12 pounders on page 376", the book discussed in this letter can be provisionally identified as The Great Boer War published by Smith Elder in 1902, where at page 375 there is a corresponding reference to Percy Scott's famous naval guns: 'Besides these there were no fewer than sixteen naval guns from H.M.S. "Terrible" – fourteen of which were 12-pounders, and the other two of the 4.7 type which had done such good service both at Ladysmith and with Methuen'. Conan Doyle – emulating his fictional counterpart Dr Watson – had served as a volunteer doctor at Bloemfontein between March and June 1900.