The News of the Camp

The News of the Camp was a small newspaper covering the period between 18th December, 1880, and 28th March, 1881, distributed in the Pretoria military camp during the First Boer War. It was edited by Charles Duval (spelt Charles Du-Val in the newspaper) and Charles Deecker and was intended to be published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

The paper was printed under trying conditions with a bungalow with a leaky canvas thrown over its unfinished roof for a printing office. When it rained a gentle waterspout ran down the compositor's back as he stood composing with a composer's stick in hand. Over his shoulder he wore a Martini- Henry cartridge bandolier, while his rifle lay nearby. His uniform consisted of a white apron. The Editors’ quarters consisted of an army bell-tent and a transport wagon, the space between them ingenuously roofed in with a tattered sail stretched on telegraph poles. On the front page was written: "A journal of fancies, notifications, gossip, and general chitchat, published in the military camp of her Majesty's forces defending the beleaguered inhabitants of Pretoria." At night the Editors stood on guard up to their knees in mud or "sleeping in a pair of leather-breeches, long boots, and jack spurs, a bandolier instead of a wife's arms as a necklace, a bag of cartridges for a bolster and a Snider (sic) carbine for a sleeping partner -- peculiarities not conducive to the satisfactory wording of editorials or the manufacture of news."

Motto

"Cribbed, Cabined, Confined, Bound in."

Publishers Notices

The newspaper, wrote the Editors, "will contain all the official news and orders, and the Editors will endeavour to procure for their readers as much interesting information of camp life and doings outside as it is possible to obtain.

"This days issue is only one quarter of the size the journal usually will be, as the pouring rain has penetrated through our canvas roof and sadly interfered with the harmony of our arrangements.

"The page now sent broadcast to the public will, we hope, find favour with its readers, and the co-operation of our friends is invited, with a view to making the journal a fund of valuable information and a true record of camp life.

"In our next we propose publishing a list of officials, both military and civil, and to give the digests of their duties, and where they are (or ought) to be found.

"Thus much of the present inconvenience to complaints, and annoyance to officers, will be prevented.

"Persons wishing to make known their once more requirements can do so through our columns, and editors will do their best to afford satisfactory answers to the enquiries of correspondence.

"Advertisements will be inserted at the rate of 2s per line, and the "News of the Camp" will be delivered in every fourth at 6d each. – No Tick.

"This journal possesses the largest circulation of any periodical published in the district of Pretoria, having readers and subscribers extending within a radius of fully one mile and a half from the office of publication."

Sources

The News of the Camp, Vol 1, 25th December, 1880.

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