The Relief of Mafeking

How It Was Accomplished by Mahon's Flying Column; with an Account of Some Earlier Episodes in the Boer War of 1899-1900

by FILSON YOUNG

Methuen & Co., 36 Essex Street W.C., London, 1900

Contents

PREFACE

PART I.  ENGLAND IN TIME OF WAR

I. How the Reserves came up
II. How the Army left England
III. How the Wounded came Home

PART II.  IN THE WAKE OF THE ARMY

IV. The Long Sea Road
V. Scenes at Cape Town
VI. In the Eddies of a Great Whirl
VII. Magersfontein and Kimberley
VIII. Paardeberg

PART III.  LORD ROBERTS'S ADVANCE TO BLOEMFONTEIN

IX. The Boer Panic at Osfontein
X. The March on Dreifontein
XI. The Battle of Dreifontein and the March on Bloemfontein
XII. Retracing the Steps of the Army

PART IV.  AN EXPEDITION WITH LORD METHUEN

XIII. In the Field again
XIV. The Capture of Boers at Tweefontein
XV. An Elusive Enemy
XVI. A Surprise on the March
XVII. Under the Red Cross Flag

PART V.  WITH THE FLYING COLUMN TO MAFEKING

XVIII. A Strategic Secret
XIX. The Departure from Kimberley
XX. From Taungs to Vryburg
XXI. Nearing the Goal
XXII. We Repel an Attack and Join Forces with Plumer
XXIII. The Fighting on the Molopo
XXIV. Mafeking at Last
XXV. A Memorial of the Siege
XXVI. Good-bye to Mafeking
 

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FIELD-MARSHAL LORD ROBERTS OF KANDAHAR, K.P., G.C.B., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., V.C.	MR. G. LENTHAL CHEATLE, F.R.C.S., CONSULTING SURGEON TO HER MAJESTY'S FORCES IN SOUTH AFRICA	LIEUTENANT-GENERAL P.S. LORD METHUEN, K.C.V.O., C.B., C.M.G.	BRIGADIER-GENERAL BRYAN MAHON, D.S.O.
MAP OF MAHON'S MARCH	PLAN OF THE BATTLE ON THE MOLOPO ON MAY 16TH	FACSIMILE OF SIGNED MENU OF THE RELIEF DINNER AT MAFEKING

TO

MCD

PREFACE

The proprietors of the Manchester Guardian have kindly allowed me to make use of their copyright in the letters written by me to that newspaper during the first half of the year. The substance of the letters has been reproduced in the hope that home-staying folk may find in them something of the atmosphere that surrounds the collision of armed forces. It is a strange and rude atmosphere; yet it pleases me at this moment to remember not so much the strangeness and rudeness as the kindness and good-fellowship that made a dreadful business tolerable and the memory of it pleasant. Many friends of these brave days I may not see again, but if their eyes should ever light on this page I would have them know that it contains a greeting.

FILSON YOUNG
LONDON,
July 31st, 1900