The siege of Mafeking was a 217-day siege battle for the town of Mafeking (now called Mafikeng) in South Africa during the Second Boer War from October 1899 to May 1900. The siege received considerable attention as Lord Edward Cecil, the son of the British prime minister, was in the besieged town, as also was Lady Sarah Wilson, a daughter of the Duke of Marlborough and aunt of Winston Churchill. The siege turned the British commander, Colonel Robert Baden-Powell, into a national hero. The Relief of Mafeking (the lifting of the siege), while of little military significance, was a morale boost for the struggling British. Prelude Shortly before the outbreak of the Second Boer War in 1899, Lord Wolseley, Commander-in-Chief of the British Army, who had failed to persuade the British government to send troops to the region, instead sent Colonel Robert Baden-Powell, accompanied by a handful of officers, to the Cape Colony to raise two regiments of mounted rifles from Rhodesia. Their aims were to maintain a mobile cavalry force on the frontier with the Boer republics of Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Like the British government, politicians in South Africa feared that increased military activity might provoke a Boer attack, so the British officers were provided with rifles and ammunition, but no artillery or horses – in those days, generally regarded as quite important for a mobile column. They decided to obtain many of their own stores, organise their own transport and recruit in secret. Although the two regiments were raised in Rhodesia, Baden-Powell chose Mafeking to store supplies for his forces due to its location – both near the border and on the railway between Bulawayo and Kimberley – and because of its status as a local administrative centre. Also, the town had good stocks of food and other necessities. However, Mafeking was isolated, exposed and close to Boer-controlled areas. Baden-Powell, whose orders were to command a highly mobile field force of cavalry, chose to immobilise half his force to hold Mafeking against a Boer attack. Many of Baden-Powell's recruits were untrained and he was aware of the Boers' greatly superior numbers, commando tactics and the failure of the earlier Jameson Raid and decided that the best way to tie down Boer troops would be through defence rather than attack. In August 1899, Baden-Powell started recruiting (in secret, to avoid negative political effects) and many of