Cecil Rhodes a one-off gun named Long Cecil. Rhodes used his position and influence to lobby the British government to relieve the siege of Kimberley, claiming in the press that the situation in the city was desperate. The military wanted to assemble a large force to take the Boer cities of Bloemfontein and Pretoria, but they were compelled to change their plans and send three separate smaller forces to relieve the sieges of Kimberley, Mafeking and Ladysmith. Although Rhodes remained a leading figure in the politics of southern Africa, especially during the Second Boer War, he was dogged by ill health throughout
Mafeking Cadet Corps act as lookouts, mainly to warn the townspeople when the Boer siege guns were aimed and fired at different parts of the town. The town produced its own postage stamps, known as "Mafeking Blues", for postage during the siege. One set depicted the cadet leader Warner Goodyear seated on a bicycle . The Mafeking stamps were unusual among the stamps of the British Empire at that time, because they did not depict the monarch. Frankie Brown, a 9-year-old boy, was killed by a shell during the siege, and is sometimes claimed as a cadet casualty, although it is unlikely that