page_title: Archibald Hunter
section_title: Second Boer War
hierarchical_section_title: Archibald Hunter / Second Boer War
caption_attribution_description: Men of the Day No.747: Caricature of Maj-Gen Sir Archibald Hunter KCB DSO. Caption reads: "our youngest General"
context_page_description: General Sir Archibald Hunter, GCB, GCVO, DSO, TD was a senior officer in the British Army who distinguished himself during the Boer War. He was Governor of Omdurman, in Sudan, and later of Gibraltar.
context_section_description: At the outbreak of the Second Boer War in October 1899, Major General Hunter (although actually Chief of Staff to General Sir Redvers Buller's 1st Army Corps) was on the staff of Sir George White's Natal Field Force during the Battle of Ladysmith in Natal and the subsequent 118-day siege. On 8 December he successfully led a small raid against one of the Boers' Creusot "Long Tom" guns and a howitzer which they disabled with cotton charges.
  The town was relieved on 1 March 1900 and Hunter was promoted to lieutenant general on 6 March and posted as General Officer Commanding 10th Division.
  The 10th Division were sent to join Lord Roberts' army on the western front of South Africa which was now camped at the captured Orange Free State capital Bloemfontein.  Hunter led them in the march on Pretoria, crossing into the Transvaal Republic on 3 May. Once Pretoria was captured though Robert's army had to deal with Guerrilla warfare and General Hunter was sent south again as overall commander of five columns that converged on the Free State army camped at Brandwater Basin, forcing the surrender of 4,314 Boers led by Marthinus Prinsloo.  It was the largest number of Boers captured in the war so far and cost very little in British casualties; only 33 dead and 242 wounded.
caption: Hunter caricatured by Spy for Vanity Fair, 1899
exif: {}