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Introduction
This article describes the First World War diaries of the King's African Rifles, one of the British African colonial regiments. The documents are held, together with other related material, at The National Archives, Kew, London. The content of these daily accounts of the activities of individual Units is discussed and their position within the structure of the archive is outlined, as is their relationship with certain other categories of War Office and Colonial Office records. It is suggested that the information contained in the war diaries might potentially contribute, apart from the military history of the East African campaign, to a social history of the regiment and to an environmental history of the campaign. While this article deals specifically with the diaries of the KAR, these appear to be representative of the East African war diaries and those of other regiments and battalions contain broadly similar information. The war diaries at The National Archives relating to the campaign in East Africa are being digitised and will be available online through the online catalogue.
King's African Rifles
The King's African Rifles was a British colonial regiment which played a prominent role in the East Africa campaign. It is the subject of a substantial regimental history in Hubert Moyse-Bartlett's King's African Rifles: a study in the military history of East and Central Africa, 1890-19451. Nevertheless, the regiment lacks a social history along the lines of Michelle Moyd's work on the African soldiers in German East Africa.2 It was largely constituted by African recruits drawn from British colonies in east and later central Africa. These African troops were private soldiers and sometimes non-commissioned officers. The commissioned officers were white British soldiers, as were some of the noncommissioned officers.
The King's African Rifles was established in 1902, out of a number of preexisting regiments - the Central Africa Regiment, the Uganda Rifles and the East African Rifles. Its roots lay in British imperial expansion in East and Central Africa in the late nineteenth century. It became an important agent of colonial rule and was largely used for internal security, for protecting infrastructure and in campaigns against neighbouring African polities. By 1914, the regiment had seen plenty of active service in East Africa, including campaigns against Sayyid Mohammed Abdullah...