A biography of Francis Joseph Sheil O’ Cleary Clarke, based on his diary, written c. 1931-40.

Born in Ireland, Clarke arrived in Cape Town in 1895. He fought against the Boers in the Jameson Raid of 1896 and then trekked by ox-wagon to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), reaching Bulawayo in 1897. He worked for the Native Department, guarded the Limpopo frontier during the Boer War, and worked as a Magistrate for 33 years in Gwelo, Gatooma, Umtali, Fort Victoria, Hartley, Enkeldoorn and Salisbury, where he retired in 1930.