[George Wyndham, as Under-Secretary of State for War.] Autograph Letter Signed to Sir Redvers Buller

2pp., 12mo. 25 lines of text. On aged and worn paper with slight loss at head (not affecting text). The letter begins: 'My dear Sir Redvers | I am ashamed to write to you about a personal matter at such a time, but this is, I think, a very strong claim. | George Peel, son of Lord Peel, in the Oxfordshire Yeomanry, has gone out to South Africa at his own expense, & wishes to be attached to any expedition which is sent to relieve Kimberley, because his sister is there. | He is 6 feet high, a good rider and a keen officer, and an exceptionally clever fellow, and I am sure he would be a help instead of a hindrance to any force he was with.' He concludes by explaining that Peel has only just returned to England from South Africa on the Saturday, '& that, hearing War had broken out, he returns by this the next mail'. Whether as a result of Buller's intervention or not, Peel was able to participate in the campaign. In her book 'The Staff Work of the Anglo-Boer War' (1901) E. C. Briggs writes: 'Two excellent pieces of work were done by the Hon. George Peel, who was then acting as one of the Red Cross commissioners, when he ran a convoy of stores to the Kimberley hospitals, directly after the raising of the siege of that town'.