1. The raid on Surprise Hill, 10/11th December 1899

On the night of 10th December 1899 the 2nd Battalion of the
Rifle Brigade launched an attack on a troublesome Boer gun on Surprise Hill, to
the north of Ladysmith. This followed a successful foray by the Colonial
troops, the Imperial Light Horse, Natal Carbineers and the Border Mounted
Rifles on three Boer guns on Gun Hill three nights previously.

2. Original Rifle Brigade monument

Some time after Ladysmith was relieved, the Rifle Brigade erected a monument at the foot of
Surprise Hill to commemorate their feat, inscribed with the names of those who
were killed and buried nearby in a mass grave. Lieutenant Gilbert Ferguson’s
name is included even though his body was taken into Ladysmith for burial in
the Borough cemetery. Some years ago the monument was vandalised by people
digging for artefacts. It collapsed into a heap of stones. Only later was the
white marble plaque with the names of those Riflemen who died in the attack,
smashed into fragments.

3. The rebuilt monuments

In 2009 the monument was rebuilt. Jan Human, on whose farm the monument is sited, and Eugene Campher,
who is passionate about anything connected with Ladysmith’s history, worked for some years to achieve this result.

4. The Rifle Brigade Monument

The Rifle Brigade monument has been reconstructed to be as close as possible to its original shape and size. A new marble plaque has been made which includes the names of all those killed in the raid.

5. The original plaque

The fragments of the original plaque have been cemented into the rear of the cairn.

6. The Boer monument

The Boer dead of the engagement
needed to be commemorated as well. A column alongside the Rifle Brigade cairn
gives their names, including the name of the first Jewish man on the Boer side
to be killed in the Anglo Boer war.

7. Marble plaque with the Boer names.

The Boer names.

8. Harry Spanier

The plaque for the first Jewish fatality of the Anglo Boer war on the Boer side.

9. Tin Town cemetery

Those buried at the foot of Surprise Hill were reinterred at Tin Town cemetery but only recently was a plaque with their names placed there.

10. Rededication ceremony

The monument was rededicated in a ceremony attended by about 200 people on 11th December 2009.

11. The march to Ladysmith from Dundee

In 1899 the Colony of Natal’s borders were very different from the provincial borders of today. The districts of Vryheid and Utrecht, which had constituted the New Republic, merged with the Transvaal in 1881 which became the South African Republic. These borders meant that the defence of the northern portion of Natal was problematic.
Newcastle and the territory north of Dundee could easily be cut off by Boer forces advancing from the Orange Free State to the west and the Transvaal to the east. In Dundee, Major General Sir Willam Penn Symons, boasting that he had no plan for the defence of Dundee, made no attempt to fortify the town. A frontal attack on the Boers who occupied Talana Hill in the early morning of 20th October 1899 was successful. The Boers retreated but Penn Symons was mortally wounded and his force suffered 500 casualties, most of them wounded or captured.
The remaining 4000 artillery, cavalry and infantry had no alternative but to retire back into Ladysmith. The march took three days, not a man was lost, and these men were a welcome reinforcement for Lieutenant General Sir George White’s Ladysmith garrison. Even more valuable were the 18 guns that came too.

12. Sir George White, VC

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...

14. Mournful Monday

There was huge enthusiasm when Joubert announced to the assembled commandos at Sandspruit that the Boer republics were in a state of war with Great Britain. He had arrived there on a special train and the British journalist H.W. Nevinson wrote: At Zandspruit the whole Boer camp crowded to the station to greet the national hero, and he was at once surrounded by a herd of farmers, shaking his hands and patting him warmly on the back. It was a
respectful but democratic greeting. Joubert’s advance into the Colony of Natal commenced on 11th October. The Boers moved slowly and cautiously. Newcastle, undefended by the British, was occupied only on the 14th
and it took another five days before they reached the outskirts of Dundee. Although they suffered setbacks at Talana and Elandslaagte, Joubert’s men pressed forward and the battle outside Ladysmith on Monday 30th October 1899
restored the Boer morale and confidence.

15. Boer bombardment

Every part of the town was soon within range of Boer artillery. It took several days before the Boer guns were in place. On 7th November the bombardment started in earnest, although Boer shells had been falling in the town since the 2nd. Apart from moving some of their lighter guns from hill to hill, the Boer gunnery did not seem well organized or coordinated. Their citizen army was loath to accept the inevitable casualties that would have been the result of an
attempt to storm the defences. Thus the alternative was to batter their enemy into submission with constant artillery bombardment. Short of ammunition, the British could reply only occasionally, not knowing when their resupply would reach them. George Steevens, of the Daily Mail wrote that “the Boers made war like gentlemen of leisure” and “the casualties in Ladysmith during a fortnight were one white civilian, two natives, a horse, two mules, a waggon, and about half-a-dozen houses.”

16. King's Post

That there were not more casualties was the result of the civilian population digging themselves into shelters and caves along the high banks of the Klip River. The soldiers dug trenches and built sangars and were sheltered behind stone walls. The 2nd Battalion of the Rifle Brigade on King’s Post, in an exposed position and vulnerable to artillery fire from the hills to the west, north and south, built bomb-proof shelters and covered pits against shrapnel. Nevertheless, they had to seek rapid shelter when a shell was fired.

21. The besiegers

With little now to occupy them, it is not surprising that the Boers now looked to their comforts. Joubert had insisted on only one wagon for every twenty-five or fifty Boers. The Commandant General however was no longer present in Ladysmith and General Schalk Burger, the Transvaal Vice President, had taken his place. By the end of November there were numbers of tented wagons drawn up into laagers around the Boer encampments. A number of the Boer wives followed and a sort of picnic atmosphere reigned.

22. Boer picnic

The fact that the British had made no attempt to attack any of these laagers gave the Boers a false sense of security and by early December sentries and picquets would usually lie and sleep rather than keep watch. Reitz wrote in Commando: During the daytime no guards were set at all, as there were always a sufficient number of men on the hill above amusing themselves with sniping to make sure of an alarm being given. At night, although we went on outpost so close to the English sentries that we could hear them challenge each other, we did not take our watches very seriously. We used to go out on foot after dark in parties of twenty or so, and, on reaching neutral ground on the plain between ourselves and the enemy-line, two men at a time would walk forward a short distance. Here they stood or sat on sentry-go while the rest of us pulled off our boots, spread out blankets and went to sleep.

24. Lieutenant General Sir George White and staff

White had resolved to await relief by General Redvers Buller’s army assembling to the south of the Tugela. Reinforcements were arriving from England and there were ample supplies of food, ammunition and forage for the animals inside Ladysmith. He did not expect to be shut up in Ladysmith for more than a month, or perhaps two at the most. White had brought with him two trusted staff officers, Colonel Ian Hamilton and Lieutenant Colonel Sir Henry Rawlinson. Already present in Natal was Major General Archibald Hunter, sent from India to be Chief of Staff to General Sir Redvers Buller. As Buller had not yet arrived in South Africa, Hunter was ordered to attach himself to White for the time being. Also in this picture is Major David Henderson, Deputy Assistant Adjutant General for
Intelligence

27. George Willis

The refugees had exchanged their homes and property for the doubtful safety and protection of Ladysmith and felt bitter resentment towards the authorities as a result. The owner of the land on which Bulwana was situated was a man called George Willis, the mayor Ladysmith in 1899. From his dugout in the bank of the Klip River, where he and his large family were now lodged, he could plainly see Bulwana and the Boer guns on its flat summit. In early December he approached White’s staff and strongly advocated a raid to silence the Long Tom on the hill. White’s
response could only have been negative. A few nights later a letter appeared in the town accusing General White of cowardice. Willis was not to know that in fact plans were being made to attack certain of the Boer gun positions.