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The accounts of the Boer War often emphasise how it was a much bigger conflict than Britain had seen in its past. Of course, it was itself to be dwarfed only a few years later by the Great War.

Peter Chasseaud's First World War, p139, notes this comparison regarding Neuve Chapelle:

A brief 35 minute 'hurricane bombardment' by 342 guns and howitzers heralded an attack by the infantry of four divisions - about 40,000 men - on a 2 mile front. An indication of the mechanisation and intensity of the war, even at this stage [1915], is that more shells were fired in this brief bombardment than in the whole Boer War.

I think that simply from a military perspective, the Anglo Boer War was a very steep learning curve for both the War Office and the Government and I should imagine both were left staggered by what it had actually cost, particularly, in financial terms.

djb wrote: The accounts of the Boer War often emphasise how it was a much bigger conflict than Britain had seen in its past. Of course, it was itself to be dwarfed only a few years later by the Great War.

Peter Chasseaud's First World War, p139, notes this comparison regarding Neuve Chapelle:

A brief 35 minute 'hurricane bombardment' by 342 guns and howitzers heralded an attack by the infantry of four divisions - about 40,000 men - on a 2 mile front. An indication of the mechanisation and intensity of the war, even at this stage [1915], is that more shells were fired in this brief bombardment than in the whole Boer War.