Emily Hobhouse, an English philanthropist and social worker who visited the Transvaal and Orange Free State Republics during the Second Anglo Boer War, reported to the British government that she found 2 000 women and children in shocking circumstances in the British concentration camp at Bloemfontein. The British government was unsympathetic to the plight of the prisoners and the dire circumstances continued. It was estimated that more than 27 000 people in White camps and more than 18 000 inhabitants of Black camps had died in captivity during the war.
24 January 1901
Emily Hobhouse reports on her findings regarding concentration camps during the Second Anglo Boer War
- Updated
- 24 Jan 2020

Emily Hobhouse by Henry Walter Barnett - National Portrait Gallery - photograph uploaded on Wikipedia
How we know this
- 01Wallis, F. (2000). Nuusdagboek: feite en fratse oor 1000 jaar, Kaapstad: Human & Rousseau.
- 02Cloete, P.G. (2000). The Anglo-Boer War: a chronology, Pretoria: Lapa.
- 03spartacus ,'Emily Hobhouse', [Online]Available at:www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk, [Accessed on 17 December 2013]
Last updated · 24 Jan 2020
South African History Online. (2011, March 16). Emily Hobhouse reports on her findings regarding concentration camps during the Second Anglo Boer War. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011217
South African History Online (2011) 'Emily Hobhouse reports on her findings regarding concentration camps during the Second Anglo Boer War', South African History Online, 16 March. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011217 (Accessed: 22 October 2026).
South African History Online, Emily Hobhouse reports on her findings regarding concentration camps during the Second Anglo Boer War [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011217, (accessed 22 October 2026).
"Emily Hobhouse reports on her findings regarding concentration camps during the Second Anglo Boer War." South African History Online, 16 Mar. 2011, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011217. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.
South African History Online. "Emily Hobhouse reports on her findings regarding concentration camps during the Second Anglo Boer War." South African History Online. March 16, 2011. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011217.
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Further reading
Black Concentration Camps during the Second Anglo-Boer War, 1900-1902
Women and Children in White Concentration Camps during the Anglo-Boer War, 1900-1902
Concentration camps in the South African War? Here are the real facts by Fransjohan Pretorius, (The Conversation), February 18, 2019
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