Relief of Ladysmith Relief of Ladysmith When the Second Boer War broke out on 11 October 1899, the Boers had a numeric superiority within Southern Africa. They quickly invaded the British territory and laid siege to Ladysmith, Kimberley and Mafeking. Britain meanwhile transported thousands of troops both from the United Kingdom itself and from elsewhere in the Empire and by the time the siege of Ladysmith had been lifted, had a huge numeric superiority. The Colony of Natal was bisected from east to west by the Tugela River which rose in the Drakensberg (to the west) and flowed into the Indian Ocean to
Mafeking, Victoria Mafeking, Victoria Mafeking is a locality in Victoria south east of Grampians National Park and near the town of Willaura. "In 1900 there was a large rush to the Grampians area south of Mt William, to what became known as the Mafeking rush. In 1897 two splitters named Arthur and David Schache found gold in a gully in the granite area, and told the brothers Philip and Frank Emmett, who were on a shooting trip. The Emmetts returned from the Rocky Point Diggings at Ararat, and stayed with their friends, the Masons. They prospected the area and got the first