TOPIC:

The battle fought on Majuba Hill on 27 February 1881 was a decisive victory for the Boers and concluded the First Boer War.



'Amajuba Hil

Amajuba is the scene of General Colley's disastrous defeat, which was followed by the signing of the Convention of 1881 giving the Transvaal back to the Boers. The view is taken from laing's Nek and shows the road over the Nek and the trenches which the Boers prepared but never used.'



'O'Neill's Farm

O'Neill's Farm, at the foot of Amajuba, is the spot where the Convention of 1881 was signed, and where Sir Redvers Buller and Commandant General Botha had their conference a brief time since.'



During the night of 26th February, Colley set out in the evening with a column of 400 comprising the 92nd Gordon Highlanders, 58th and the Naval Brigade. It was a moonless night and progress was made on hands and knees. It was an exhausting ascent. They scaled Majuba Hill by early morning and enjoyed a view of the main Boer laager. As dawn broke, Highlanders could be seen on the skyline by the Boers. Reacting quickly, the Boers scaled Majuba from multiple points. The steep sides of the hill meant the British were unaware of when and from where they would approach until the crested the summit. The Boers easily drove the British from the summit. Panic set in and the troops streamed down the hill, sometimes over the precipitous sides and retreated back to camp. A sailor returning to camp commented that it has taken him 5 hours to get up Majuba but that he only touched the ground 5 times on the way down.

The rout lasted 30 minutes and had cost the British severely. 92 were killed, 134 injured and 59 taken prisoner. General Colley was amongst those killed. The Boers reported one killed and 6 wounded. The exact casualties are not known for several days. Major Fraser, RE, lay in the open until darkness fell. He used the light of glowworms to illuminate his compass and find his way back but the journey still took two days.

The commanding position offered by Majuba would have given Colley control over the surrounding countryside but if his goal was to attack the Boers, why did he not drag the artillery pieces to the summit and better defend his flanks? He certainly provoked the Boers and paid dearly for it.

'Remember Majuba' was an oft-repeated rallying cry for the British during the Second Boer War. The Imperial War Museum hold a picture of wall of a house occupied in the Second Boer War. On the wall is scratched ‘Don’t forget Majuba, Boys’. After the British retook the house, a response was added beneath it which read ‘No fear, Boere, no fear’. It was not until the capture of General Cronje and his men in February 1900 that the shame of Majuba was expunged, or, to paraphrase Kipling, wiped off the slate.

An attempt to colour Melton Prior's picture of Colley's stand at Majuba

The summit of Majuba.
Image taken from War With the Boers Volume 1
By Harold Brown
Published by H Virtue and Company

Image taken from Volume 1 War With the Boers.
By Harold Brown
Published by H Virtue and Company

Summit panorama in 5 photos

Camp panorama