Boer War
Siege of Ladysmith
2 November 1899

The British military faces another humiliation, yet the encirclement of this garrison town in the north of the colony of Natal was not in itself a disaster. The Battle of Ladysmith three days earlier in which the British had suffered 1 272 casualties, including the surrender of 954 officers and men, had indeed been a disaster.

But the town of Ladysmith was well provisioned and Lt General Sir George White (VC), the leader of the Natal Field Force, was later to suggest that he had allowed his force to be besieged as a deliberate military strategy. Perhaps so, but then he was expecting to be cut off for a few days, a week or two at most.

Had not General Buller’s First Army Corps, numbering 45 000 men, already begun to arrive in Cape Town? What could withstand such a force? Certainly not “a rag-tag bunch of farmers in their absurd top-hats and frock coats”! Despite everything, the British would undoubtedly be in Pretoria by Christmas – or would they?

The truth of the matter was that the siege was not relieved during the next few weeks. It dragged on for 120 days and by the time elements of Colonel, the Lord, Dundonald’s Mounted Brigade made their weary way into the town at 17h30 on the 28th February 1900, much water had passed under the bridge.

Almost 850 British soldiers were dead, over 550 of them from disease; 54 civilians had died and the Boer artillery had fired 20 000 shells into the town. The provisions were nearly exhausted and the troops were reduced to eating the emaciated cavalry horses. One of the first tasks for the relieving forces was to see to the evacuation of some 2 800 sick and wounded soldiers to medical facilities closer to the coast.

For four months, the attention of the world had been riveted on this small town. Then it slipped once again into relative obscurity as the war moved on.

Audio : Ron - "snapshots" on the Siege of Ladysmith

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