The Legacy of the Boer War: British Army Procurement and Logistics before 1914

Abstract

Strategy, battles and tactics may win wars but the inability to prosecute them ends in defeat. The First World War illustrates how the capacity to produce arms and materiel efficiently dictates the ultimate outcome. The British experience in the decade prior to 1914 is an interesting one. This article examines problems arising from the British Army’s experiences in the Boer War; subsequent enquiries and some of the lessons learnt ‒ and forgotten ‒ over the pre-war decades. It was this environment which explains the often forgotten logistics weaknesses that threatened the British Army’s fighting capacity in 1914.