Mafeking Mooch determined Boer fighters. Britain’s war effort had been hampered because up to 40 percent of British recruits were unfit for military service, suffering from medical problems such as rickets and other poverty-related illnesses. Mafeking Mooch The Mafeking Mooch was an affected style of walking performed by some British men during the first decade of the 20th century to give the impression that they had been injured during the celebrated siege and/or relief of Mafeking. The town of Mafeking was home to one of the major British garrisons besieged at the start of the Second Boer War in October 1899. The
Second Boer War invasion of the Cape Colony and Colony of Natal between October 1899 and January 1900. With speed and surprise, the Boer drove quickly towards the British garrison at Ladysmith and the smaller ones at Mafeking and Kimberley. The quick Boer mobilisation resulted in early military successes against scattered British forces. Sir George Stuart White, commanding the British division at Ladysmith, had unwisely allowed Major-General Penn Symons to throw a brigade forward to the coal-mining town of Dundee (also reported as Glencoe), which was surrounded by hills. This became the site of the first engagement of the war, the Battle of