Namirembe Cathedral in Kampala where grave stones attest to those that took part in the Buganda campaign.

We would like to apologise to all our readers for the recent absence of this column due to unavoidable circumstances. We are now happy to inform everyone that the Buganda History series as researched and written by Robert Asketill are now back and will be posted once a week every Sunday from today. Hope you enjoy them.

We now seek deep into Buganda’s noble history by researching the British war diaries which every officer in any campaign had to write up as a daily duty and Buganda was to see scores of Britain’s best die in the Buganda campaign, mainly from Black Water Fever as can be seen on the grave stones in the Namirembe cemetery. Never before, as far as we know, has the Buganda history been shown from War Diaries. We have come across all sides suffering incredible hardship in their fight to save their tribes or kingdoms from colonisation or in the effort to colonise, but no matter they all deserve to be recorded within the greatness of Buganda.

In November, 1893, Colonel H. Colvile (Grenadier Guards), later Major-General Sir Henry Colvile, K.C.M.G., CB and to become commander, Infantry Brigade, Gibraltar 1899; Guards Brigade and 9 Div., South Africa 1899-1900 and unfortunately to die riding a motorcycle into a car, became the new British representative and reached Kampala with two other officers, Captains J. H. S. Gibb (Worcester Regiment) and A. B. Thruston (Oxford Light Infantry). From now onward, other military officers continued to be seconded for service in Uganda, usually men who had served with the new Egyptian army, partly on account of their ability to speak Arabic and partly because the future of Uganda was felt to depend on successful resistance to the Mahdi. Colvile found it impossible to work in the vicinity of the Baganda capital and, following Portal’s example, moved to Port Alice.