Ladysmith was cut off and surrounded by the Boer armies of the South African Republic of the Transvaal and that of the Orange Free State on 2nd November 1899. Sir George White, the British commander of the Natal Field Force, had resolved to deny this important strategic town and rail junction to the Boers. His report stated: It may be well to state here shortly the reasons which governed my choice of this position. Ladysmith is the most important town in Northern Natal, and there was reason to believe that the enemy attached very great and perhaps even undue importance to obtaining possession of it. Strategically the town was important as being the junction of the railways which enter Natal from the Transvaal and the Orange Free State...
