ABSTRACT
The event which did most to shape the British Army’s debate on cavalry doctrine and reform between 1880 and 1918 was not an advance in military thinking or written doctrine, but a campaign. It began on 11 February 1900, led by Field Marshal Lord Roberts to relieve the siege of Kimberley, and ended at the battle of Diamond Hill exactly five months later.1 This campaign transformed the fortunes of both sides in the Boer War, which since its start on 11 October 1899 had seen a succession of British defeats (although far from an unbroken one) culminating in the triple defeat of ‘Black Week’ in December. Roberts’s campaign led to the relief of Kimberley and continued with his triumphal entry on 13 March into Bloemfontein, capital of the Orange Free State. The British advance resumed on 3 May towards Johannesburg, and Pretoria, capital of the Transvaal Republic, which was reached on 5 June. The Orange Free State was annexed to the British Crown on 24 May under the name Orange River Colony, and the Transvaal was annexed on 25 October as Transvaal Colony.2 Roberts proclaimed victory, and the Conservative government called and won a general election, widely known as the ‘Khaki Election’. On 29 November, Roberts was succeeded by Lord Kitchener in South Africa and returned to London to succeed Wolseley as C-in-C of the Army. Talks to end the fighting began on 28 February 1901, leading to just over a year of guerrilla war that was frustrating for both sides, and culminating in the surrender of the remaining Boers in return for moderate peace terms, agreed at Vereeniging in the Transvaal on 31 May 1902 and ratified in Pretoria on the same day.
