In 1757, Robert Clive had raised the 1st Regiment of the Bengal Native Infantry of which two companies were grenadier companies, however, no regiments of grenadiers were formed from the Bengal Army until a battalion was formed in 1779.
By now British sentiment was in favoured of amalgamating their own colonies and the Boer republics into one union, with the primary purpose of gaining possession of the Transvaal gold mines. The Premier of the Cape Colony, Sir Cecil Rhodes, first tried to achieve this union through a putsch that failed due to wariness on the part of Paul Kruger, President of the Boer Republic.
The Second Boer War, also known as the Second Anglo-Boer War and the South African War, 11 October 1899 - 31 May 1902 was the first major international conflict of the 20th century.he last of the Boers surrendered in May 1902 and the war ended with the Treaty of Vereeniging in the same month. The Union of South Africa was established in 1910. The treaty ended the existence of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State as Boer republics and placed them within the British Empire.