Siege of Kimberley

Prior to the onset of the Second Boer War, Kimberley was the second-biggest city in the Cape Colony, and vibrant and prosperous as the centre of diamond mining operations of the De Beers Mining Company, who supplied 90% of the world's diamonds. The town had a population of 40,000, of which 25,000 were white. It was one of a handful of British outposts in the far north east of the colony, located just a few kilometres from the borders of the Boer republics of the Transvaal and Orange Free State; Cape Town was away by rail, while Port Elizabeth was . The closest Boer settlements were Jacobsdal to the south and Boshof to the east. ==Preparation==

The De Beers company was concerned about the defence of Kimberley some years before the outbreak of the war, particularly its vulnerability to attack from the neighbouring Orange Free State. In 1896, an arms depot was formed, a plan of defence sent to the authorities and a local defence force set up. As it began to look more likely that war would break out, the nervous citizens of Kimberley appealed to the premier of the Cape Colony, William Philip Schreiner, for additional protection, but he did not believe the town to be under serious threat and declined to arm it further. The town next appealed to the high commissioner, this time with more success. Cecil John Rhodes, the founder of De Beers, was contemplating moving into the town. The citizens feared that his presence there, given his prominent role in the breakdown of Anglo-Boer relations leading up to the war, would antagonise the Boers. Consequently, the mayor of Kimberley, as well as various associates of Rhodes, tried to discourage him. However, Rhodes ignored the advice and moved into the town just prior to the onset of the siege, very narrowly evading capture when the Boer ultimatum expired at 5 pm on 11 October while he was still en route. It was a calculated move to raise the political stakes and thereby force the British government to divert war resources to lifting the siege on his mining operation. Since most of the resources in the garrison were owned by De Beers, Rhodes inevitably became an important factor in the defence organised by Colonel Robert Kekewich. As head of the mining company that owned most of the assets in the town, the military felt that Rhodes proved to be more of a hindrance as he did not co-operate fully with them; civil and military authorities were not always working together, especially after the death of the second in command of the garrison, Major Scott-Turner. In practice, unlike Baden Powell at Mafeking, Kekewich did not have free rein to conduct the defence as he saw fit. Kekewich decided to include the neighbouring municipality of Beaconsfield as well as the outlying suburb of Kenilworth inside the defensive perimeter he established around the town. but Lord Methuen advised Kekewich that “Rhodes is to leave Kimberley the day after I arrive. Tell him he is not to interfere in military matters.” ==Siege==

ticket from the siege of Kimberley The conflict at Kimberley started on 14 October 1899. Colonel Baden-Powell, anticipating the inevitable onset of hostilities, encouraged all the women and children to leave the town. Some civilians left in a special train, escorted as far as Vryburg by an armoured train. On the return journey, the armoured train was captured in the first action of the war between Kimberley and Mafeking at Kraaipan by Boers under the command of fighting general De la Rey, the hero of the western Transvaal. On 12 October, the Jacobsdal Commando severed the railway line at the bridge over the Modder River south of Kimberley, whereafter the Boers entrenched themselves in the hills at Spytfontein. Heliograph and dispatch riders consequently had to make hazardous journeys through Boer lines to the Orange River and then to Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. On 15 October, martial law was declared in the town. The cattle that usually grazed on the outskirts of the town presented a problem; if they were left, they would be lost to the Boers, but if they were slaughtered, the meat would perish quickly in the summer heat. The De Beers chief engineer, George Labram, provided a solution by building an industrial refrigeration plant underground in the Kimberley mine to preserve the meat. The Boer commander, Commandant Cornelius Wessels, presented Kekewich with an ultimatum on 4 November, demanding the town's surrender. When the siege of Kimberley itself began in earnest on 6 November, the situation favoured an attack. The Boers were in control of the railway from the Orange River to Mafeking, while arms and ammunition were in short supply in Kimberley. On 7 November, the Boers started shelling the town. Communication with the outside world was not seriously impeded however. The Boer strategy was not to attack the town in a full battle, but rather to wait for the defenders to capitulate, all the time wearing them down with shelling. The defenders tried to send the large contingent of migrant native labourers that was working in the mines home, but twice the Boers drove them back into the town in an apparent attempt to put pressure on the limited food and water supply. However, Kekewich was a more cool-headed man, and was careful to let the authorities in Cape Town know that the situation was by no means desperate and that he would be able to hold out for several weeks. Kekewich obtained permission from his superior to place Rhodes under arrest if necessary. The food and water supply was managed closely by the military authorities. Rationing was imposed as the food supply dwindled, with the inhabitants eventually resorting in the final states of the siege to eating horse meat. Vegetables could not be grown easily because of a shortage of water. The scarcity of vegetables took the hardest toll on the poorest people, notably the 15,000-strong indigenous population; a local doctor suggested that they eat aloe leaves to avoid contracting scurvy, while Rhodes organised a soup kitchen. On 25 November, the British garrison launched an attack on the Boer redoubt at Carter's Ridge, west of the town. Kekewich's men held the belief that the action would assist Methuen's relief column at Magersfontein by keeping more Boers occupied at Kimberley. A detachment of 40 members of Cape Police and Light Horse under the command of Major Scott-Turner of the Black Watch set out at midnight and completely surprised their enemy in the early hours of the morning. Thirty-three Boers were captured at the cost of four killed. Scott-Turner tried to repeat the successful raid three days later, but it was a disaster for the British the second time round, with Scott-Turner among those killed. The engineers of Rhodes's company, under Chief Mechanical Engineer George Labram, were instrumental in the defence of the town. They manufactured fortifications, an armoured train, a watch tower, shells, and a gun, known as Long Cecil, for the defenders in order to supplement their inadequate weapons. Long Cecil was rifled with a bore of capable of propelling a shell . The gun was completed on 21 January 1900, and successfully test fired against a previously untouchable Boer position north of the town. The Boers countered on 7 February with a much heavier 100-pounder named "Long Tom"; it had been disabled by British saboteurs at Ladysmith, before being repaired at Pretoria, and brought to Kimberley. In addition to having larger shells than any of the siege guns used up to that point, its longer range meant that it could also target any location in Kimberley. The town's inhabitants had become accustomed to shelling by smaller guns and were to some extent able to take shelter and to carry on their daily lives. The new gun immediately changed the status quo, as terrified residents were no longer able to find sanctuary anywhere at ground level. Fortunately for the defenders, the gun did not use smokeless powder, so observers were able to give residents up to 17 seconds warning to take cover when a shell was incoming. Labram was the most notable civilian casualty, when he was killed within a week of the end of the siege, ironically by a Boer shell from the Long Tom gun brought to counter his own gun. Kekewich arranged a full military funeral for him, which was well attended, but took place after dark for safety reasons; the procession was targeted by Boer shelling with the help of a traitor inside the town who lit the area with a flare. The Boers besieged the town for 124 days, shelling it on most days, except Sundays. ==Relief==

The British commander-in-chief in South Africa, General Sir Redvers Buller initially planned to march with a single large force on the Boer capitals of Bloemfontein and Pretoria. However public opinion demanded relief of the sieges of Kimberley, Ladysmith and Mafeking — pressure that was attributable in part to Rhodes's presence in Kimberley and lobbying in London. Lord Methuen was sent north by the War Office in December 1899 with the objective of relieving Kimberley and Mafeking, while Buller himself went to Natal. On 1 December 1899, communications were established between Methuen's relief column and the defenders in the town. However, Methuen's advance ground to a halt after the Boers inflicted heavy casualties on his force at the Battle of Modder River and defeated him resoundingly at the Battle of Magersfontein. These, and other defeats elsewhere, came to be called "Black Week" by the British. Thus, for two of the four months of the siege, the 10,000 British troops at Modder River who were within of the town, were unable to reach it. Field Marshal Lord Roberts replaced Buller as British Commander-in-Chief in South Africa in January 1900. Within a month Roberts assembled 30,000 infantry, 7,501 cavalry and 3,600 mounted infantry, together with 120 guns, in the area between the Orange and Modder Rivers. News of the shelling by the Boer Long Tom gun had reached Lord Roberts, whose parting words to his officers on 9 February were that "You must relieve Kimberley if it costs you half your forces." and that the advance would largely continue as before along the railway line. With this mind, Roberts ordered the Highland Brigade west to Koedoesberg, As French's column neared the Modder River on 13 February, a force of about 1,000 Boers made contact with his right flank. French wheeled his right and centre brigades towards their enemy, thereby allowing the brigade on the left to hold course for Klip Drift, while giving the enemy the false impression that he was headed for Klipkraal Drift. The whole force then wheeled left at the last minute and charged the Klip Drift crossing at full gallop. The Boers at Klip Drift, who were taken completely by surprise, left their camp and provisions behind, which French's exhausted men and horses were glad to seize. Although speed was important, the cavalry had to wait for the infantry to catch up to secure the lines of communication before moving forward to relieve Kimberley. The cavalry's route had taken them deep inside the Free State over Cronjé's line of communication, thereby cutting off any Boer forces who did not immediately fall back. Meanwhile, Roberts led the main force in an easterly direction with the objective of capturing the Orange Free State capital, Bloemfontein. French's flanking manoeuvre took a very high toll on horses and men in the blazing summer heat, with about 500 horses either dying en route or no longer fit to ride. When Cronjé became aware of French's cavalry on his left flank at Klip Drift, he concluded that the British were trying to draw him eastwards away from his prepared defences. He dispatched 900 men with guns to stop the British push northwards. French's men set out from Klip Drift at 9:30 am on 15 February on the last stage of their journey to Kimberley, and were soon engaged by the Boer force sent to block them. Rifle fire came from the river in the east while artillery shells rained from the hills in the north west; the route to Kimberley lay straight ahead through the crossfire, so French ordered a bold cavalry charge down the middle. As waves of horses galloped forward, the Boers poured down fire from the two sides. However, the speed of the attack, screened by a massive cloud of dust, proved successful and the Boer force was defeated. British casualties during this day's fighting were five dead and 10 wounded, with roughly 70 horses lost through exhaustion. The cavalry had covered in four days at the height of summer to reach the town. When French arrived in town, he snubbed Kekewich, the local military authority, by presenting himself to Rhodes instead. French's men did not have much opportunity to relax when they reached the town, as they were roused during their first night in the town first to make yet another dash to try to capture the Long Tom gun and, in the early hours of 17 February, to cut off Cronjé's main force, who had abandoned Magersfontein and were heading east towards Bloemfontein along the Modder River. Kitchener directed French to cut off the Boers' escape; of French's original strength of 5,000, only 1,200 of his cavalrymen were still fit, while the horses were depleted. At first light, the cavalry headed towards the Boer dust clouds; soon they were overlooking a whole valley full of Boers, with cattle, 400 wagons and women and children in tow. The surprise was complete when the British started shelling the Boer column just as it started crossing the Modder River at Paardeberg Drift, causing considerable confusion and panic. ==Aftermath==

On 17 February, Kekewich was promoted to the rank of full colonel while French was promoted to major general. A number of medals were issued to combatants, notably the Kimberley Star, which was instituted by Mayor H. A. Oliver. Since the medal was not an official one, it could not be worn with military uniforms. The official awards for the siege and relief of Kimberley were, respectively, the "Defence of Kimberley" and "Relief of Kimberley" clasps to the Queen's South Africa Medal. A camp for Boer refugees from Griqualand West was established in Kimberly as early as December 1899. On 4 January 1901, the town commandant of Kimberley formally established a concentration camp for captive Boer civilians, which was administered by the Kimberley Regiment. The camp's prisoners consisted of families of Boer troops from across the Cape Colony, Free State, Transvaal and Bechuanaland along with Black refugees. It was formally closed on 9 January 1903, when all remaining prisoners were released. A memorial outside the Newton Dutch Reformed Church commemorates those that died in the camp. The Honoured Dead Memorial, a sandstone edifice commissioned by Cecil Rhodes and designed by Sir Herbert Baker, was erected to commemorate the defenders who fell during the siege. Twenty-seven soldiers are entombed in the memorial, which was made from stone quarried in the Matopo Hills in Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe). It bears an inscription by Rudyard Kipling: Long Cecil, the gun manufactured in the De Beers workshops during the siege, is mounted on the stylobate (facing the Free State), surrounded by shells from the Boer Long Tom. ==See also==