LETTERS from a teenager written more than 100 years ago detailing life in South Africa during the Boer War have been unearthed by his son.

Philip Sefton's father, William Horner Sefton, served in South Africa for two years in the war.

During that time, he wrote home to his family every week.

For decades, the letters were left unread in an envelope.

Now Mr Sefton, from Darlington, is carefully re-organising the letters and reading his father's thoughts about life in a war zone.

William Sefton joined the Army as a 17-year-old boy-soldier in 1901.

Philip Sefton believes he enlisted out of a sense of patriotism. However, his staunch Methodist beliefs prevented him from taking up a combatant's role.

Instead, he was assigned to the Army's postal department.

Mr Sefton, 86, a former headteacher of Gurney Pease Primary School, in Darlington, said: "His main purpose was to see that troops in the front line got their mail as often as possible to keep up morale.

"He was a staunch Methodist, and while he was there went to church twice on Sundays and once during the week.

"The letters talk about the people he met through the church.

"He was also a very keen cricketer, so he helped to form cricket teams in South Africa and they played against other postal branches and other Army teams."

Mr Sefton's father returned from Africa to work for the Post Office.

However, he was conscripted back into the army after the outbreak of the First World War.

Mr Sefton said his father very rarely talked about his life in the Army, so reading his letters has been something of a revelation.

He said: "It's very interesting as it's not directly concerned with the war, although he does talk about the men 'up country' on the front line.

"It has a lot of description of movement around the country.

"One of the interesting bits is when they are waiting to be sent back home.

"I was in the Second World War and of course I know what it's like when you're waiting to get back home to your family, who you haven't seen for a few years. Every embarkation document and things like that become of such importance."

After leaving the Army, William Sefton joined the Post Office as a full-time career, where he eventually rose to be the postmaster of Stafford.

Also among with the letters, are a series of notes for talks he gave about the Boer War.

These lectures were probably given to Methodist groups, and among the anecdotes of the war are warnings about the dangers of alcohol

Mr Sefton said: "I don't know what I'm going to do with the letters now, but they are very interesting to read.

"It's hard to believe they are more than 100 years old."