THE ‘Jameson Raid’ became a propaganda coup not only for Kruger but for Kaiser Wilhelm II of Britain’s rival colonial power, Germany, who gleefully stirred the pot by sending Kruger a congratulatory telegram.

Emboldened, Kruger’s Boers marched against Natal and the Cape on 11th October 1899, but expected support from Germany never materialised. The British garrison at Mafeking was besieged, but relieved in May the following year after a heroic 217-day defence led by Robert Baden-Powell. Sieges at Kimberley and Ladysmith had already been relieved in February, with journalist Winston Churchill on hand to report home. Slowly the superior military power of the British began to tell.

The Peace of Vereeniging on May 31st, 1902, accepted the Boers’ surrender but promised them independence, which duly came in 1907. Three years later, Transvaal and the Orange Free State joined with Natal and the Cape to form a new nation free from London’s control, the Union of South Africa.