Siege of Ladysmith extensively with the Siege of Ladysmith Siege of Ladysmith The Siege of Ladysmith was a protracted engagement in the Second Boer War, taking place between 2 November 1899 and 28 February 1900 at Ladysmith, Natal. As war with the Boer republics appeared likely in June 1899, the War Office in Britain dispatched a total of 15,000 troops to Natal, expecting that if war broke out they would be capable of defending the colony until reinforcements could be mobilized and sent to South Africa by steamship. Some of these troops were diverted while returning to Britain from India, others were sent
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