Siege of Mafeking

Shortly before the outbreak of the Second Boer War in 1899, Lord Wolseley, Commander-in-Chief of the British Army, who had failed to persuade the British government to send troops to the region, instead sent Colonel Robert Baden-Powell, accompanied by a handful of officers, to the Cape Colony to raise two regiments of mounted rifles from Rhodesia. Their aims were to maintain a mobile cavalry force on the frontier with the Boer republics of Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Like the British government, politicians in South Africa feared that increased military activity might provoke a Boer attack, so the British officers were provided with rifles and ammunition, but no artillery or horses – in those days, generally regarded as quite important for a mobile column. They decided to obtain many of their own stores, organise their own transport and recruit in secret. Although the two regiments were raised in Rhodesia, Baden-Powell chose Mafeking to store supplies for his forces due to its location – both near the border and on the railway between Bulawayo and Kimberley – and because of its status as a local administrative centre. Also, the town had good stocks of food and other necessities. However, Mafeking was isolated, exposed and close to Boer-controlled areas. Baden-Powell, whose orders were to command a highly mobile field force of cavalry, chose to immobilise half his force to hold Mafeking against a Boer attack. Prior to the siege, Lord Edward Cecil formed the Mafeking Cadet Corps of boys aged 12 to 15 who acted as messengers and orderlies and released men to fight (later claimed to be one of the inspirations for the Boy Scouts). == Siege ==

currency issued by authority of Colonel Robert Baden-Powell. Work to build defences around the perimeter of Mafeking started on 19 September 1899; the town would eventually be equipped with an extensive network of trenches and gun emplacements. President Kruger of the Boer South African Republic declared war on 12 October 1899. Under orders of General Piet Cronje the Mafeking railway and telegraph lines were cut the same day, and the town began to be besieged from 13 October. Mafeking was first shelled on 16 October after the British commanders ignored Cronje's 9 o’clock deadline to surrender. Some authors believe that this has been overattributed to cunning deceptions instituted by Baden-Powell. A howitzer was built in Mafeking's railway workshops, and even an old cannon (dated 1770, it coincidentally had "B.P. & Co." engraved on the barrel) As in the case of the nearby siege of Kimberley, the Boers decided that the town was too heavily defended to take. On 19 November 1899, 4,000 Boers were redeployed elsewhere, although the siege remained and shelling of Mafeking continued. Aware of the approaching British relief columns, the Boers launched a final major attack early in the morning of 12 May that succeeded in breaching the perimeter defences and setting fire to some of the town, but were finally beaten back. Boer attack : Racing after a spent shell On 12 May, at about 4 a.m., Field Cornet S. Eloff led a force of 240 Boers in a daring assault on Mafeking. Covered by a feint attack on the east side of the town, the attackers slipped between the Hidden Hollow and Limestone forts on the western face of the defences. Guided by a British deserter, they followed a path beside the Molopo River to where it enters the stadt, the village where the native Africans lived. Eloff's party burst into the stadt unopposed and set fire to the huts in order to signal the attack's progress to Snyman. By about 5:30 a.m., the Boers seized the police barracks on the outskirts of Mafeking, killing one and capturing the garrison's second-in-command, Colonel C. O. Hore and 29 others. Eloff picked up the telephone connected with the British garrison headquarters and boasted to Baden-Powell of his success. • a one-penny, with a photograph of Cadet Sgt. Major Goodyear on a bicycle, designed by Dr W. A. Hayes, and • a threepenny, with a photograph of Baden-Powell by Mr Ross, designed by Capt. H. Greener Similarly, to ease the problems caused by the lack of genuine banknotes, in late 1899 Baden-Powell authorised the issue of siege banknotes. Made by Townshend & Son, Printers (Mafeking) using woodcut printing, notes were backed by the Standard Bank of South Africa and issued in denominations of one-, two-, three- and 10-shilling coupons as well as £1 notes, of which 620 were printed. The intention was that, after the siege was over, these could be exchanged for genuine currency, but in practice few were; most were kept as souvenirs. The printer believed that perhaps only 20 would be cashed in, making a £600 profit for the Imperial exchequer. They currently sell for around £1500 each but are rarely sold. Each note has the facsimile signatures of Robert Urry, the manager of the Mafeking branch of the Standard Bank of South Africa. Redemption of the notes ended in 1908. and many South African volunteers from Kimberley, commanded by Colonel B. T. Mahon of the army of Lord Roberts with Prince Alexander of Teck as his Aide-de-camp, relieved the town after fighting their way in. ==Aftermath==

, celebrating the relief of Mafeking Until reinforcements landed in February 1900, the war was going poorly for the British. The resistance to the siege was seen as one of the positive highlights in the media, and it and the eventual relief of the town excited the liveliest sympathy in Britain. There were immense celebrations in the country at the news of its relief, described humorously as 'mafficking' and creating the verb to maffick, as a back-formation from the place-name (meaning to celebrate both extravagantly and publicly). Some of these celebrations, as with those of the relief of Pretoria that followed soon after, sparked rioting in places including Paddington, Gloucester, Northampton, Peterhead, Leicester, Derby, Norwich, Edinburgh, and Banbury, prompting a motion in the House of Commons. Promoted to the youngest major-general in the army, and awarded the CB, Baden-Powell was also treated as a hero when he finally returned to Britain in 1903. However, the remaining stores that Baden-Powell had amassed in Mafeking were so great that they were able to re-supply Mahon's force and operations in the area for some time. While a sorely needed publicity victory for the British, the British commanders believed Baden-Powell had been foolish to risk so many supplies and allow himself to be besieged and had made no effort to break out and had overstated the number of Boer forces tied up while in fact tying up considerably more British forces. For Baden-Powell, and in the British media, the siege was thought of as a victory, but for the more practical Boers it had been a strategic success. For no significant achievement, the townspeople and garrison suffered 212 killed and over 600 wounded. For the British Army commanders, it was a distraction and nuisance and, after Baden-Powell's further poor combat performance in completely abandoning the mostly Rhodesian soldiers and Australian diggers at Elands River, Baden-Powell was removed from any combat command. ==Legacy==

In September 1904 Lord Roberts unveiled an obelisk at Mafeking bearing the names of those who fell in defence of the town. The siege established Baden-Powell as a celebrity in Britain, and when he wrote Scouting for Boys in 1908, his fame contributed to the rapid growth of the Boy Scout Movement. Several streets in the UK were named after Mafeking. File:Mafeking_Obelisk.jpg|Overall view Mafeking Obelisk Mafeking Obelisk Panel1.jpg|Detail panel 1 – Protectorate Regt. pt.1 Mafeking Obelisk Panel2.jpg|Detail panel 2 – Bechuanaland Rifles, etc. Mafeking Obelisk Panel3.jpg|Detail panel 3 – British Sth Africa Police, etc. Mafeking Obelisk Panel4.jpg|Detail panel 4 – Protectorate Regt. pt. 2 MafekingMonumentHalifaxNovaScotia.JPG|South African War Memorial (Halifax), Province House (Nova Scotia), Canada by Hamilton MacCarthy == See also ==