Ladysmith, Siege of, took place during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 (see Anglo-Boer Wars). For 110 days during the winter of 1899-1900, British troops were trapped by an army of Afrikaners, also called Boers, at the small town of Ladysmith in northwest Natal, in what is now South Africa.
The siege of Ladysmith came right at the beginning of the war. It was part of a three-pronged Afrikaner offensive that also included sieges at Kimberley and Mafeking (now Mafikeng). On Oct. 12, 1899, the day after hostilities began, an army of 18,500 Afrikaners, led by Commandant-General Piet Joubert, invaded Natal. Joubert trapped most of the British troops in Natal within the British Army’s headquarters at Ladysmith. They were under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir George White. Joubert then marched on Ladysmith. In a battle at Moddespruit on October 30, White failed to halt the Afrikaner advance, and 1,764 of his troops were killed or captured. That same day, Joubert laid siege to Ladysmith. Joubert was then replaced as commandant-general by Louis Botha.
On December 15, the new British commander-in-chief, Sir Redvers Buller, with 18,000 men, made a bid to relieve Ladysmith. His forces attacked a 6,000-strong army of Afrikaners commanded by Botha at Colenso. Buller attempted to force a crossing over the Thukela River, but Botha’s troops, dug into trenches along the riverbank, occupied strongly fortified positions, and the British were driven back, with heavy losses of men and artillery. Buller got a message to White, advising him to fire off as much of his ammunition as possible and surrender to the Afrikaners.
White did not surrender. Buller, now answering to Field Marshal Lord Roberts, the new supreme commander of the British forces in South Africa, organized further assaults on Botha’s line of Afrikaner forces that blocked the way to Ladysmith in late January and early February 1900. They proved fruitless, resulting in defeats for the British forces at Spion Kop and Vaalkrans. Botha and his forces showed their brilliance at moving swiftly and their ability to dig trenches and establish strong positions. But Botha lost 400 troops in his encounters with the British and could not replace them. Beginning on February 14, Buller used the full weight of his artillery and fresh infantry to dislodge Botha’s forces. Finally, on February 28, battered but heartened by the news that Roberts had retaken Kimberley, the first British troops entered Ladysmith, ending the siege. Today, stained-glass windows and marble tablets in All Saints’ Anglican Church at Ladysmith commemorate the 3,200 men who died defending it or fighting to relieve it.
