Description
Title: Mafeking – The Story of the Siege
Author: Flower-Smith, Malcolm and Yorke, Edmund
Condition: Very Good
Edition: 1st Edition
Publication Date: 2000
ISBN: 0620252510
Cover: Soft Cover without Dust Jacket – 174 pages
Comments: The detailed account of the seige of Mafeking during the Boer War.
The Siege of Mafeking was the most famous British action in the Second Boer War. It took place at the town of Mafeking (now Mafikeng) in South Africa over a period of 217 days, from October 1899 to May 1900, and turned Robert Baden-Powell, who went on to found the Scouting Movement, into a national hero. The Relief of Mafeking (the lifting of the siege) was a decisive victory for the British and a crushing defeat for the Boers.
The Mafeking forces comprised the Protectorate Regiment of around 500 men, around 300 from the Bechuanaland Rifles and the Cape Police, and a further 300 men from the town. A cadet corps of boys aged 12 to 15, later to be one of the inspirations for the Scouting Movement, was also formed to act as messengers and orderlies. The recruitment of these cadets released men to fight, bringing the total engaged in the military effort to around 2000. Even though it was supposed to be a “white man’s war” Baden-Powell also armed 300 African natives with rifles. They were nicknamed the “Black Watch” and used to guard the perimeter.
In all, 212 people were killed during the siege, with over 600 wounded. Boer losses were significantly higher. The siege established Baden-Powell as a celebrity in Britain, and thus when he started the Scout Movement a few years later, his fame contributed to its rapid initial growth.
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