Siege of Kimberley is raised

During the Second Anglo-Boer War between the two Boer republics and Britain, Gen. French relieved Kimberley after a siege of 123 days.  Despite numerous attacks by the Boer commandos and 5 800 shells fired, the town had suffered only 134 casualties among armed defenders and twenty-one civilians, but some 1 500 people, mostly Coloureds and Blacks, had died of famine and disease. The infant mortality rate during the four months of the siege had risen to 67,1% among Whites and 91.2% among Coloureds and Blacks. The British lost at least 2 237 men of the relieving force.