Manuscript diary and notes of Private Matthew M Tuck, 58th (Rutlandshire) Regiment of Foot from the Zulu War (1879) and the Transvaal War (1880-1881)

The documents describe Tuck's service in the Zulu War, including the Battle of Ulundi (26 February 1879), and in the Transvaal War.

In the diary Matthew Tuck notably recounts the Battle of Laing's Nek on 11 April 1882, during the Transvaal War. Here the 58th Regiment was tasked with advancing uphill to assault a formidable position occupied by Britain's enemies, the Boers. As Tuck describes, this attack was a disastrous failure:

'The 58th were now advancing up the height and getting exhausted & worn out in marching up the high hill with all their equipment on and not getting any rest going up. It was very hard work for our men having scarcely any breath in their bodies, and when we got about 20 yards from the top an order was given to charge but our men being so much exhausted it could not be done to any good advantage. The enemy who were secreted behind large boulders of rock being well under cover, they now poured such heavy fire into us and fell most of our men to the ground, one man getting 15 bullets pierced into his body. We were now defeated, not being able to disperse the enemy out of their most splendid position, and we now retired down the hill leaving our dead and wounded to the mercy of the enemy up at the top of the height'.

Tuck himself was wounded in the left ankle and was brought off the field on horseback by Lieutenant Alan Richard Hill. This was one of three rescues undertaken by Hill during the battle, for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross. The wound was serious, and Tuck was discharged from the Army on account of it later that year.