Battle of Majuba Hill

Battle of Majuba Hill
Battle of Majuba Hill
	Part of the First Boer War
	; An illustration of the battle, showcasing the British Army in action against the Boers.
Date	27 February 1881
Location	Majuba Hill, Volksrust, Kwazulu-Natal27°28′36″S 29°51′02″E / 27.4768°S 29.8505°E
Result	Boer victory
Belligerents
Transvaal	United Kingdom
Commanders and leaders
Nicolaas Smit ; Stephanus Roos ; Daniel J.K. Malan ; Joachim Ferreira	Maj Gen. Sir George Pomeroy Colley †
Strength
400	405
Casualties and losses
1 killed ; 5 wounded	92 killed ; 134 wounded ; 59 captured

The Battle of Majuba Hill on 27 February 1881 was the final and decisive battle of the First Boer War that was a resounding victory for the Boers. The British Major General Sir George Pomeroy Colley occupied the summit of the hill on the night of 26–27 February 1881. Colley's motive for occupying Majuba Hill, near Volksrust, now in South Africa, may have been anxiety that the Boers would soon occupy it themselves, since he had witnessed their trenches being dug in the direction of the hill.^[1]

The Boers believed that he might have been attempting to outflank their positions at Laing's Nek. The hill was not considered to be scalable by the Boers for military purposes and so it may have been Colley's attempt to emphasise British power and strike fear into the Boer camp.

The battle is considered by some to have been one of the "most humiliating" defeats suffered by the British in their military history.^[2]^[3]

^ "The rapid strides that had been made by the Boers in throwing up entrenchments on the right flank of their position, and the continuance of these works in the same direction upon the lower slopes on the Majuba hill during the days subsequent to his return, induced him to believe that if the hill was to be seized before it was occupied and probably fortified by the Boers that this must be done at once." – The National Archives, WO 32/7827, "From Lt. Col. H. Stewart, A.A.G., to the General Officer Commanding, Natal and Transvaal, Newcastle, Natal, 4th April 1881. Report of the action on Majuba Hill, 27th February."
^ "It can hardly be denied that the Dutch raid on the Medway vies with the Battle of Majuba in 1881 and the Fall of Singapore in 1942 for the unenviable distinctor of being the most humiliating defeat suffered by British arms." – Charles Ralph Boxer: The Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th Century, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London (1974), p.39
^ Cite error: The named reference Little Wars was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[1] "The rapid strides that had been made by the Boers in throwing up entrenchments on the right flank of their position, and the continuance of these works in the same direction upon the lower slopes on the Majuba hill during the days subsequent to his return, induced him to believe that if the hill was to be seized before it was occupied and probably fortified by the Boers that this must be done at once." – The National Archives, WO 32/7827, "From Lt. Col. H. Stewart, A.A.G., to the General Officer Commanding, Natal and Transvaal, Newcastle, Natal, 4th April 1881. Report of the action on Majuba Hill, 27th February."

[2] "It can hardly be denied that the Dutch raid on the Medway vies with the Battle of Majuba in 1881 and the Fall of Singapore in 1942 for the unenviable distinctor of being the most humiliating defeat suffered by British arms." – Charles Ralph Boxer: The Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th Century, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London (1974), p.39

[Little_Wars-3] Cite error: The named reference Little Wars was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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