Frederick David Baillie

Frederick David Baillie, born in 1862, is chiefly remembered for Mafeking: A Diary of the Siege, a contemporary account of the Siege of Mafeking during the Second Boer War. Public-domain library records confirm him as the author of that book, which was published in 1900 and later preserved by projects such as Project Gutenberg.

Sources available during this search also describe him as Major F. D. Baillie, a former Hussar officer who later worked as a war correspondent for the Morning Post. That background fits the character of Mafeking, which reads as both a military record and a personal day-by-day chronicle of endurance, improvisation, and morale under siege.

Very little biographical detail beyond his birth year and military-journalistic connection was clearly confirmed in the sources reviewed here, so it is safest to remember him primarily through this book and the eyewitness perspective it preserves.