Siege of Mafeking The Siege of Mafeking was the most famous British action in the Second Boer War . It took place at the town of Mahikeng ( called Mafeking by the British ) in South Africa over a period of 217 days , from October 1899 to May 1900 , and turned Robert Baden - Powell , who went on to found the Scouting Movement , into a national hero . The Relief of Mafeking ( the lifting of the siege ) was a decisive victory for the British and a crushing defeat for the Boers . " Prelude " . Shortly before the outbreak of the Second Boer War in 1899 , Lord Wolseley , Commander - in - Chief of the British Army , who had failed to persuade the British government to send troops to the region , instead sent Colonel ( later Lord ) Baden - Powell , accompanied by a handful of officers , to the Cape Colony to raise two Regiments of Mounted Rifles from Rhodesia . Their aims were to resist the expected Boer invasion of the Natal Colony ( now KwaZulu - Natal Province ) , draw the Boers away from the coasts to facilitate the landing of British troops , and , through a demonstrable British presence , deter the local people from siding with the Boers . Like the British government , the local politicians feared that increased military activity might provoke a Boer attack , so Baden - Powell decided to obtain many of his own stores , organise his own transport and recruit in secret . With barely trained forces and aware of the Boers ' greatly superior numbers , commando tactics and the failure of the earlier Jameson Raid , Baden - Powell decided that the best way to tie down Boer troops would be through defence rather than attack . Consequently he chose to hold the town of Mafeking due to its location - both near the border and on the railway between Bulawayo and Kimberley - and because of its status as a local administrative centre . As well , the town had good stocks of food and other necessities . The Mafeking forces comprised the Protectorate Regiment of around 500 men , around 300 from the Bechuanaland Rifles and the Cape Police , and a further 300 men from the town . A cadet corps of boys aged 12 to 15 , later to be one of the inspirations for the Scouting Movement , was also formed to act as messengers and orderlies . The recruitment of these cadets released men to fight , bringing the total engaged in the military effort to around 2000 . Even though it was supposed to be a " white man ' s war " Baden - Powell also armed 300 African natives with rifles . They were nicknamed the " Black Watch " and used to guard the perimeter . Siege . Work to build defences around the perimeter of Mafeking started on 19 September 1899 ; the town would eventually be equipped with an extensive network of trenches and gun emplacements . President Kruger of the independent Boer South African Republic declared war on 12 October 1899 . Under the orders of General Cronje the Mafeking railway and telegraph lines were cut the same day , and the town began to be besieged from 13 October . Mafeking was first shelled on 16 October after Baden - Powell ignored Cronje ' s 9 o ' clock deadline to surrender . Although outnumbered by over 8 , 000 Boer troops , the garrison withstood the siege for 217 days , defying the predictions of the politicians on both sides . Much of this was attributable to some of the cunning military deceptions instituted by Baden - Powell . Fake landmines were laid around the town in view of the Boers and their spies within the town , and his soldiers were ordered to simulate avoiding barbed wire ( non - existent ) when moving between trenches ; guns and a searchlight ( improvised from an acetylene lamp and biscuit tin ) were moved around the town to increase their apparent number . ( See Jon Latimer , " Deception in War " , London : John Murray , 2001 , pp . 32 – 5 . ) A howitzer was built in Mafeking ' s railway workshops , and even an old cannon ( dated 1770 , it coincidentally had " B . P . & Co . " engraved on the barrel ) was pressed into service . Noticing the Boers had failed to remove any of the rails , Baden - Powell had an armoured train from the Mafeking railyard loaded with sharpshooters and sent up the rail line in a daring attack right into the heart of the Boer camp , followed by a safe return to Mafeking . Often soldiers were asked to dress as women undertaking normal activities such as fetching water and sewing to disillusion the enemy . The morale of the civilian population was also given attention , and Sunday ceasefires were negotiated so that sports , competitions and theatrical performances could be held . Notable were the cricket matches held on a Sunday . Initially , the religious sensibilities of General J . P . Snyman ( in command after Cronje departed ) were offended , and he threatened to fire upon the players if they continued . Eventually Snyman relented and even invited the British to a game . Baden - Powell replied that first he had to finish the present match , in which the score was ' 200 days , not out ' ! As in the case of the nearby Siege of Kimberley , the Boers decided that the town was too heavily defended to take . On 19 November , 4 , 000 Boers were redeployed elsewhere , although the siege remained and shelling of Mafeking continued . Aware of the approaching British relief columns , the Boers launched a final major attack early in the morning of 12 May that succeeded in breaching the perimeter defences and setting fire to some of the town , but were finally beaten back . Boer attack . On 12 May , at about 4 am , Field Cornet S . Eloff led a force of 240 Boers in a daring assault on Mafeking . Covered by a feint attack on the east side of the town , the attackers slipped between the Hidden Hollow and Limestone forts on the western face of the defences . Guided by a British deserter , they followed a path beside the Molopo River to where it enters the Stadt , the village where the native Africans lived . Eloff ' s party burst into the Stadt unopposed and set fire to the huts in order to signal the attack ' s progress to Snyman . By about 5 : 30 am , the Boers seized the police barracks on the outskirts of Mafeking , killing one and capturing the garrison ' s second - in - command , Colonel C . O . Hore and 29 others . Eloff picked up the telephone connected with British headquarters and boasted to Baden - Powell of his success . The fire had , however , already alerted Mafeking ' s garrison , which responded rapidly to the crisis . The African police ( of the Baralong tribe ) had wisely stayed out of the way when Eloff ' s party roared through the Stadt . As soon as the Boers moved on , the 109 armed Baralongs cut off Eloff ' s escape route . Snyman , " the most stolid and supine of all the Boer generals in the war , " failed to support Eloff . Meanwhile , Baden - Powell ' s elaborate telephone network provided him with timely and accurate information . From his headquarters , the British commander directed Major Alick Godley and B Squadron ( Protectorate Regiment ) to smother the attack and dispatched D Squadron , some armed railway employees and others to help . Eloff ' s men were soon isolated into three groups . With two squadrons , Godley first surrounded a group of Boers holed up in a stone kraal in the Stadt . These men surrendered after a sharp fusillade . Godley drove the second group off a kopje and they mostly managed to escape . All day long , Eloff and the third group held out in the police barracks , finally capitulating in the night . The British lost 12 dead and 8 wounded , mostly Africans . Boer losses were 60 dead and wounded , plus a further 108 captured . 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 . 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 Cross es 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 . 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 .