Relief
The siege was finally lifted on 17 May 1900, when British forces commanded by Colonel B T Mahon of the army of Lord Roberts relieved the town after fighting their way in. Among the relief forces was one of Baden-Powell's brothers, Major Baden Fletcher Smyth Baden-Powell.
"Baden-Powell is a wonderfully able scout and quick at sketches. I do not know another who could have done the work at Mafeking if the same conditions had been imposed. All the bits of knowledge he studiously gathered have been utilized in saving that community."
— Siege of Mafeking Abandoned by the Boers, Frederick Russell Burnham, the American scout, interviewed by The Times, 19 May 1900.Until reinforcements landed in February 1900, the war was going poorly for the British. The resistance to the siege was one of the positive highlights, and it and the eventual relief of the town excited the liveliest sympathy in Britain. There were immense celebrations in the country at the news of its relief (creating the verb to maffick, meaning to celebrate both extravagantly and publicly). "Maffick" was a back-formation from Mafeking, a place-name that was treated humorously as a gerund or participle. Promoted to the youngest major-general in the army, and awarded the CB, Baden-Powell was also treated as a hero when he finally returned to Britain in 1903.
Three Victoria Crosses were awarded as a result of acts of heroism during the siege, to Sergeant Horace Martineau and Trooper Horace Ramsden for acts during an attack on the Boer Game Tree Fort, and to Captain Charles FitzClarence for Game Tree and two previous actions.
In September 1904 Lord Roberts unveiled an obelisk at Mafeking bearing the names of those who fell in defence of the town.
- Mafeking Obelisk
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Overall view
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Detail panel 1 - Protectorate Regt. pt.1
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Detail panel 2 - Bechuanaland Rifles etc.
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Detail panel 3 - British Sth Africa Police etc.
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Detail panel 4 - Protectorate Regt. pt. 2
In all, 212 people were killed during the siege, with over 600 wounded. Boer losses were significantly higher. The siege established Baden-Powell as a celebrity in Britain, and thus when he started the Scout Movement a few years later, his fame contributed to its rapid initial growth.
Read more about this topic: Siege Of Mafeking
Famous quotes containing the word relief:
“I am advised that there is an unexpended balance of about $45,000 of the fund appropriated for the relief of the sufferers by flood upon the Mississippi River and its tributaries, and I recommend that authority be given to use this fund to meet the most urgent necessities of the poorer people in Oklahoma.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“Do not be discouraged, if in a thousand instances you find your kindness rejected and wronged, your good evil-spoken of, and the hand you extend for the relief of others, cast insultingly away; the benevolence which cannot outlive these trials of its purity and strength, is not like the self-sacrifice of him, who went about doing good.”
—C., U.S. women’s magazine contributor. American Ladies Magazine, pp. 331-4 (July 1828)
“When one has come to accept a certain course as duty he has a pleasant sense of relief and of lifted responsibility, even if the course involves pain and renunciation. It is like obedience to some external authority; any clear way, though it lead to death, is mentally preferable to the tangle of uncertainty.”
—Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929)