Siege of Kimberley is raised

Date: 15 Feb 1900
Updated: 14 Feb 2023

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.

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How we know this

01Trolley Scan,"The Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902",From: Trolley Scan,[Online],Available at: rapidttp.co.za,[Accessed on: 28 January 2014]
02Cloete, P.G. (2000). The Anglo-Boer War: a chronology, Pretoria: Lapa.

Last updated · 14 Feb 2023

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2011, March 16). Siege of Kimberley is raised. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011201

South African History Online (2011) 'Siege of Kimberley is raised', South African History Online, 16 March. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011201 (Accessed: 23 July 2026).

South African History Online, Siege of Kimberley is raised [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011201, (accessed 23 July 2026).

"Siege of Kimberley is raised." South African History Online, 16 Mar. 2011, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011201. Accessed 23 July 2026.

South African History Online. "Siege of Kimberley is raised." South African History Online. March 16, 2011. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011201.