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Collection of documents relating to his service with the Army Service Corps at the Base Supply Depot, Dar Es Salaam in East Africa during the First World War, including photocopied extracts from his ms diary refering to Colonel von Lettow-Vorbeck, the treatment of German prisoners and internees, and the movements of Allied ships, troops and staff in East Africa (1916 - 1919); ts Orders of the Day by Lieutenant General Lord Smuts (20 January 1917) and Lieutnant General J L van Deventer (10 December 1917) thanking the East Africa Force for their efforts; ts copy of an order signed by Lieutnant Colonel Hudson, thanking the East Africa troops for their efforts during demobilisation (November 1918); a printed invitation to a British East African veterans banquet in London (December 1929); wartime and contemporary press cuttings; various base orders, ration sheets, tickets and programmes; postcards and Christmas cards; and several miscellaneous photographs.

Album of press-cuttings. Events on the Western Front, in Africa and India 1914-18 Box containing press-cuttings. All theatres of war. 1914-18 The Times History and Encyclopaedia of the War. The Campaign in German East Africa (parts 1-1V). 12 December 1916, 5 June 1916, 6 November 1917, 25 February 1919. 1916-19 List of war graves, The War Graves of the British Empire. Vermelles British Cemetary France. Published, Imperial War Graves Commission, London, 1928. ND The War Illustrated. General report on events. 8 July 1916 The Glory of Neuve Chapelle. Reprinted from The Daily Mail. 2 copies. 19 April 1915 The Illustrated War News 28 April 1915 Sir Douglas Haigs Great Push, The Battle of the Somme (part 1). Published, Hutchinson & Co., London 1916 3 copies of the Morogoro News 1916-17 vol. i, no.2 30 September 1916 vol. i, no 3 14 October 1916 Last issue 30 January 1917 Francis Brett Young, Five Degrees South, pub. Martin Secker, London. Poems written while on active service in German East Africa. ND John Masefield, Gallipoli, pub., Thomas Nelson & Sons Paris. ND The Coming Victory. Copy of a speech made by General Smuts. 4 October 1917 The Very Rev. Sir George Alan Smith, Syria and the Holy Land, Holder & Stoughton, London, New York, Toronto, 1919. 1919 Intelligence Notes on British and German East Africa, pub., The Intelligence Department, British East Africa. March 1916 Sketch map of the East Africa Protectorate prepared for the Handbook of British East Africa. ND Field Notes on German East Africa, pub., General Staff, India. 2 copies. August 1914 Military Report on German East Africa. Prepared by the General Staff, War Office. 1905 Collection of maps of East Africa. ND Third Supplement to the London Gazette. 2 copies 7 March 1918 Envelope containing press-cuttings. 1914-18 Newspapers. The Times. The Daily Chronicle. The East African Standard. 1914-18 Metal canister containing photographs of Dar-es-Salaam. ND

Ronald Murrays Journal begins a few weeks after the outbreak of war when his ship, the battleship Goliath (Captain T L Shelford), a unit in the Channel Fleet, was based on Portland and was employed on patrol and shipping examination duties at the eastern end of the English Channel. In mid-September HMS Goliath left Home waters for India, and Murray describes in detail their voyage east via Gibraltar, the Suez Canal, the Gulf of Suez and Aden. In the Gulf of Suez they experienced great heat, which ". was felt very much by some of the Ships company.." (4 October), but there were occasional amusements such as the capture of a seabird which ". was kept in a cardboard box and fed on Sardines which it evidently liked as it soon finished one tin" (7 October). On her arrival at Bombay on 16 October, Goliath coaled at once and then sailed with HMS Swiftsure as escorts to a large convoy of troop transports. Murray notes that some ships had fallen up to forty miles eastern of the convoy by noon on 18 October, but this situation was rectified within forty eight hours. The convoy experienced only one or two minor alarms and was mainly notable for the ceremonies that took place when they crossed the Equator on 28 October. The convoy arrived at Mombasa on 1 November and Goliaths involvement in the German East African campaign began immediately as her armed picket boat was detached for operations against the German cruiser Königsberg, which was blockaded but still in fighting condition in the Rufiji River. The Journal records that the picket boat returned "amid great enthusiasm" and with a few bullet holes in her sides on 12 November. Because it was believed that enemy shipping might ship out of the harbour there, on 28 November Goliath and Fox carried out a bombardment of Dar-es-Salaam and, as some resistance was encountered, the town was shelled again two days later. The progress of both bombardments is described at length by Murray, who notes the extensive destruction of buildings ashore. A prolonged period of inactivity followed these events as in December Goliath was ordered to Simonstown, where her midshipmen were to enjoy a full social life and to receive some further instruction in their profession. Not until early March 1915 did Goliath join the now substantial force which had been assembled to enforce the blockade of the Königsberg and, if possible, destroy her. After failing to negotiate a truce with the German authorities there, Goliath carried out a bombardment of Lindi on 20 March, but otherwise nothing of moment happened and on 27 March Goliath was ordered to leave the Cape Station for service at the Dardanelles. Murray, however, was transferred to the light cruiser Hyacinth (Captain D M Anderson) which remained with the blockading force, and his Journal lists their regular patrols off the Rufiji River and the East African coast. In early April the blockading force learnt that a supply ship was hoping to meet the Königsberg in the near future, and Murray relates how the supply ship was intercepted by Hyacinth off Tanga on 14 April and was sunk after fire had made it impossible to salvage her. The Journal entries for the remainder of April and May include regular references to reconnaissance flights by seaplanes over the Königsberg and on 1 June it records the arrival of the monitors Severn and Mersey (see also 15 June). Under the entries for 29 June and 2 July Murray notes that the monitors and aircraft were practising the techniques which they would employ against the Königsberg and on 5 July he describes the final preparations for the attack. The long but incomplete last entry in the Journal is an account of the events on 6 July, when the monitors proceeded some 5-6 miles up the Rufiji River to within 10,600 yards range of the Königsberg, but then came under continuous fire from the German ship during which the Mersey was hit and forced to break off action.

Norman King was the British consul at Dar-es-Salaam, German East Africa, when war broke out in 1914. His diary begins at the end of July and the early entries reflect the confusion which the declaration of war brought to the colonies. King himself was now on enemy territory; nevertheless, the German Authorities who had previously been his associates and friends made every endeavour to help him and other British subjects to leave Dar-es-Salaam safely: "The Governor said the Authorities would give me every assistance to obtain a dhow and told Kempner, who had meanwhile prepared my pass, to go with me and see that I got what I wanted. I expressed my regret at the situation and thanked him for all the consideration he had shown me as British Consul. He seemed very upset and both of us felt too bewildered at the sudden catastrophe to say more than a few formal phrases." (5 August 1914) After a hazardous journey by dhow along the coast King and a few other refugees arrived at Zanzibar only to be mistaken for German saboteurs and fired on! Eventually they got ashore and King went straight to the Residency to make a vigorous complaint about the incident. There followed a few days in Zanzibar during which time he was appointed Chief Intelligence Officer and then ordered to proceed to Simla in India, headquarters of the British East African Expedition. A break in the journey at Mombasa, to await despatches, allowed him to note and criticise the fact that the German subjects there had been imprisoned. King arrived at Simla, (25 August), and was installed in the headquarters to impart his knowledge of German East Africa to the British staff. He was officially appointed Political Officer to Force "B" of the East African Expedition and spent the following few days in composing a handbook on German East Africa for the benefit of the Expeditionary Force. On 20 September he sailed from Bombay with Force "C" and, on his return to British East Africa, was gazetted Political Officer temporarily attached to Force "C". Several diary entries at this time express Kings irritation with the vagueries of his position and series of stop-gap appointments. At the beginning of November the Expeditionary Force sailed for Tanga, a coasted town of strategic importance, just within the border of German East Africa. Kings description of the attack on Tanga is detailed and highly informative. Although he personally blamed the failure of the expedition upon the cowardice of the ill-prepared Indian troops, it is clear from his account that lack of organisation was chiefly responsible for the British defeat. After the Force had landed and established a camp King commented: "There was not much organisation apperant and the nature of the troops was shown by a sudden scare when what looked like the whole camp bolted, seized by unreasoning and uncontrollable panic. ------- it was pitiful to hear the officers calling out to the men to take their arms, while the men ran like sheep." (3 November) Eventually the Force advanced on the town but the move was chaotic: "There was machine gun just in front which was making a terrible noise; people said it was ours and we hoped it was, but nobody knew much." (4 November) Having sustained heavy losses the British began to fall back and the demoralised troops re-embarted. [NB News of the disaster at Tanga was not released publicly in Britain until several months later, for fear of the effect which it would have on morale.] The second operation in which King took part was more successful but still characterised by disorganisation. He was to act as interpreter on board HMS FOX whose mission was to sail to Dar-es-Salaam to make a reconnaissance and to ensure that German ships could not leave the harbour. The situation was delicate as Dar-es-Salaam was protected by a flag of truce - on the understanding that she did not harbour the German cruiser Koenigsberg. However, whilst inspecting the harbour the British were fired on and so HMS Goliath was ordered to bombard the town. After inflicting some damage the British returned to Zanzibar with a few wounded and a number of German prisoners, (28 November). Back in Mombassa King wrote: "I am at a loose end, my activities as Political Officer having come to an end after the Tanga affair, and I may have to return to consular duties." (8 December) Shortly after this he was transferred to the service of the Governor of British East Africa and early in the New Tear was sent as Political Officer with an expedition to capture Mafia Island, a small island to the south of Dar-es-Salaam. He sailed in the Kinfauns Castle with an expeditionary force of 500 and gives a thorough account of the capture of the island. While the Kinfauns Castle and Fox shelled the shore the Force landed and set up a base camp, (8 January 1915). The following day they advanced on the German position, meeting with little resistance from the outnumbered enemy. Mafia was, in fact, the first German territory in East Africa to be captured by the British. In February King returned to Mafia to take up the post of Political Officer on the island. This time he sailed in "a miserable little tub full of Indians and niggers and a rather interesting baboon" and arrived to find that Colonel MacKay, the Military Commandant of Mafia, ". has the whole white house to himself and has put up a tent for me." (8 February) Throughout Kings term of office on the island relations between the two were strained, with MacKay unwilling to recognise Kings status. The native population of the island, mainly Indians and Arabs, were apparently undisturbed by the transition from German to British rule but had enough problems of their own as, writes King, "practically everyone on the island seems to be an undischarged bankrupt." (23 August) The handling of native disputes occupied much of his time conscientious in dealing with them. Most of his non-working hours were spent in hunting or dining with the other white people on Mafia, of which there were few. The monotonous routine of life on the island is reflected in Kings diary entries which gradually become shorter and more infrequent. In addition to suffering from boredom and loneliness he was not in the best of health and many entries complain of feverishness. After a few months on Mafia he wrote ". feeling rather a wreck. I need home-leave after three-years in this climate." (3 November). In September 1916 the Foreign Office informed King that he was to be transferred to Dakar, but he remarks in his diary that he has no intention of going. He left Mafia for Dar-es-Salaam, which had just surrendered to the British, and then proceeded to Zanzibar where the medical board prescribed him four months rest in a temperate climate. On 30 October the Jubilant King sailed for home and had travelled as far as Durban before he received a wire from the Foreign Office actually granting his leave. After a dull voyage, the ship having to sail in darkness and quiet because of submarines, King reached England. His diary ends on 31 December 1916 as the ship weighed anchor.

An extremely well-written series of 77 ms letters covering his service as an NCO with the 10th Battalion Royal Fusiliers (111th Brigade, 37th Division) on the Western Front, August 1915 - July 1916, and with the 25th Battalion Royal Fusiliers in South and East Africa, February 1917 - January 1918, describing his pre-embarkation training on Salisbury Plain, conditions in France and the discomfort of trench life, artillery bombardments and the sensations of being under fire, his involvement in an attack on Pozieres during the opening of the Battle of the Somme (July 1916) in which he was wounded, evacuation back to Mile End Hospital, East London and, following his recovery, his posting to Dover in October 1916 to join the 6th (Reserve) Battalion and later the 32nd (Training Reserve) Battalion Royal Fusiliers. In February 1917 he embarked for South Africa where he joined the 25th Battalion on garrison duty at Wynberg and Cape Town, before returning to active service in July 1917 in East Africa where he describes skirmishes with the Germans, the burdens of being acting CQMS, and periods spent in hospital at Dar-es-Salaam suffering from dysentery and in Durban with an attack of fever.

Midshipmans journal (128pp) covering his service in the battleship HMS GOLIATH (September 1914 - March 1915) including her passage from the United Kingdom to India and then, as a convoy escort, to Mombasa (September - October) and her operations in the East African campaign, notably the blockade of the German cruiser KONIGSBERG in the Rufiji River and the bombardments of Dar-es-Salaam and Lindi, and then in the light cruiser HMS HYACINTH (April - July 1915) with descriptions of further operations against the KONIGSBERG including the interception and sinking of one of her supply ships and the attack on her by the monitors HMS SEVERN and HMS MERSEY; together with two Army field message books kept when he was commanding a Naval Lewis Gun Detachment in German East Africa (March - June 1917), a Night Order Book containing steaming orders for the battleship HMS WARSPITE on the Mediterranean Station and in the North Atlantic (December 1938 - January 1940); and an Admiralty pass and Admiralty Constabulary membership card issued to Murray when he was a Rear Admiral.

Microfilm copy of an informative and well-written ts diary (127pp) kept during his work with the Consular Service in East Africa, July 1914 - December 1916, referring to the confusion which the declaration of war brought to the colonies; his hazardous journey with other British subjects from Dar-es-Salaam, where he had served as British Consul, to British-held Zanzibar; his trip to the British East Africa Expeditionary Force headquarters in Simla, India, where he briefly acted in an advisory capacity before returning to British East Africa and gazetted Political Officer to the Expeditionary Force (September 1914); his irritation with the vagaries of his position and series of stop-gap appointments; his involvement in the disastrous British landing at Tanga, just within the border of German East Africa (November 1914), as interpreter on board HMS FOX, whose mission was to make a reconnaissance of Dar-es-Salaam (November 1914), and as part of the successful expedition to take Mafia Island (January 1915), the first German territory in East Africa to be captured by the British; returning there the following month to take up the post of Political Officer, he describes his handling of native disputes, the monotonous routine of life on the island and his leisure activities of hunting and fishing, eventually returning to the United Kingdom on medical leave (September 1916). The diary incorporates a large number of photographs, taken by Sir Norman and relating to events described in the text.

No 59. 6 pp. ND (February 1917) No 60. 8 pp. 17 March 1917 No 61. 3 pp. 29 March 1917 No 62. 6 pp. 13 April 1917 No 63. 8 pp. 4 May 1917 No 64. 4 pp. 17 May 1917 No 65. 1 p. 19 May 1917 No 66. 2 pp. 4 July 1917 No 67. 2 pp. 4 July 1917 No 68. 1 p. 12 July 1917 No 69. 1 p. 19 July 1917 No 70. 1 p. 25 July 1917 No 71. 4 pp. 12 August 1917 No 72. 1 p. 26 August 1917 No 73. 2 pp. 5 October 1917 No 74. 2 pp. 25 October 1917 No 75. 3 pp. 15 November 1917 No 76. 14 pp. 1 January 1918 No 77. 4 pp. 6 January 1918 Writing during the troopship voyage to South Africa, Mountfort reflects on his years service in France and concludes: If the hardships had not been mitigated by the society of real good fellows, many of whom I am glad to think will be my friends in after life - "though some are fallen asleep" - I honestly dont know if I could have endured them, though I suppose I could (No 59). On his arrival in South Africa he was posted to the 25th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers - the "Frontiersmen" - who had been serving with the East African Expeditionary Force, but were now doing garrison duties while they were being brought back up to strength. The local people looked after them very well since, writes Mountfort, "out here a private soldier is assumed to be as likely as not a gentleman" (29 March), but the garrison duties at Wynberg and Cape Town Castle brought in their wake "the increase in discipline and strict attention to all the piffling little trifles that constitute three fourths of the evils of army life" (13 April). He sought consolation in the fact that ". until the end of the war Africa seems to be a much more desirable spot than Europe" (4 May). The 25th Royal Fusiliers eventually returned to active service in East Africa in July 1917 and Mountforts first impressions of his new theatre of operations were far from favourable. "This coast is a fever-stricken hole.. however I pump quinine into myself and keep smiling" (4 July). The climate proved as much of an adversary as the Germans and August found Mountfort in a comfortable base hospital at Dar-es-Salaam recovering from a bout of dysentry. At the end of the month he was back at Lindi waiting to go up the line and, by the time of his next letter (5 October), he was ". well out in the bush and life is not exactly a continuous whirl of pleasure." A stiff action with the Germans and the ravages of the "horrible, infernal climate" made serious inroads into the Battalions strength and by November Mountfort, mentally and physically exhausted, was burdened by the onerous responsibilities of being acting CQMS. The final two letters were written from a hospital in Durban, where he was convalescing after an attack of fever. Out of 200 men in his Company, only seventeen had been able to march into the camp at Lindi at the beginning of December after their operations in the bush. On a brighter note, Mountfort gives an entertaining description of some of the troops with whom the 25th Royal Fusiliers had served in East Africa and an amusing account, of a "surprise" landing up the Lukuledi River carried out by the Silent Navy.