The immense celebrations in Britain at the news of the relief of the Siege of Mafeking briefly created the verb to maffick, meaning to celebrate both extravagantly and publicly.

* The Little Princess-Shirley Temple film which briefly depicts celebration after the relief of Mafeking.

Mahikeng – formerly, and still commonly, known as Mafikeng and historically Mafeking in English ( see name history below ) – is the capital city of the North-West Province of South Africa.

The British commander, Sir Redvers Buller, had intended to march with the whole army corps across the Orange River to Bloemfontein, capital of the Orange Free State, but by the time the troops reached Cape Town the Boers had seized the Orange River crossings and begun sieges of Ladysmith, Kimberley and Mafeking.

The protectorate was administered from Mafeking, creating a unique situation of the capital of the territory being located outside of it.

Three years later, in South Africa during the Second Boer War, Baden-Powell was besieged in the small town of Mafeking by a much larger Boer army ( the Siege of Mafeking ).

However, instead of being the aggressor Baden-Powell and Mafeking were forced to defend when 6, 000 Boer, commanded by Piet Cronje, attempted a determined assault on the town.

In September 1904, Lord Roberts unveiled an obelisk at Mafeking bearing the names of those who fell in defence of the town.

During the Siege of Mafeking, when the town and British soldiers were besieged by Boer soldiers, B-P noticed how the young boys made themselves useful by carrying messages for the soldiers.

It took place at the town of Mafeking ( now Mahikeng ) in South Africa over a period of 217 days, from October 1899 to May 1900, and turned Robert Baden-Powell, who went on to found the Scouting Movement, into a national hero.

Consequently he chose to hold the town of Mafeking 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.

The Mafeking forces comprised the Protectorate Regiment of around 500 men, around 300 from the Bechuanaland Rifles and the Cape Police, and a further 300 men from the town.

Work to build defences around the perimeter of Mafeking started on 19 September 1899 ; the town would eventually be equipped with an extensive network of trenches and gun emplacements.

Under the orders of General Cronje the Mafeking railway and telegraph lines were cut the same day, and the town began to be besieged from 13 October.

In September 1904 Lord Roberts unveiled an obelisk at Mafeking bearing the names of those who fell in defence of the town.

On 7 February 1885 the force reached Vryburg, the principal town in Stellaland, then continued to Mafeking, the principal town in Goshen.

At Mafeking Baden-Powell set up fake forts at some distance from the town, one marked as his own headquarters soon drew enemy attention.

The Mafeking Cadet Corps was a group of youths that supported the troops by carrying messages, which freed the men for military duties and kept the boys occupied during the long siege.

In the United Kingdom, the public followed Baden-Powell's struggle to hold Mafeking through newspapers, and when the siege was broken, he had become a national hero.

The Siege of Mafeking was to last 217 days.

Mafeking, being a railway junction, provided good supply facilities and was the obvious place for Baden-Powell to fortify in readiness for such attacks.

Lastly, over to the south of Mafeking lay the diamond mining city of Kimberley, which was also subjected to a siege.

One division, led by Lieutenant General Lord Methuen, was to follow the Western Railway to the north and relieve Kimberley and Mafeking.

The town's name was first spelt by British settlers as Mafeking, but the name reverted to Mafikeng in 1980.

I think he was an incurable romantic and consequently a little afraid of his emotions and perhaps ashamed of them ... he had been a young hussar in the Boer War and had been present at the relief of Mafeking.

" Maffick " is a back-formation from Mafeking, a place-name that was treated humorously as a gerund or participle.

He was later accused of a delay in forwarding artillery and rifles to defend Kimberley, Mafeking, and other towns in the colony.

General Nogi is significant to Scouting in Japan, as in 1911, he went to England in attendance on Prince Higashifushimi Yorihito for the coronation of King George V. The General, as the " Defender of Port Arthur " was introduced to General Robert Baden-Powell, the " Defender of Mafeking ", by Lord Kitchener, whose expression " Once a Scout, always a Scout " remains to this day.

The last surviving windmill was destroyed by fire during Mafeking Night celebrations in 1900.

Morpeth's Mafeking Park at the bottom of Station Bank at the intersection with the Great North Road was unofficially considered to be the smallest park in Britain.

Wolf was one of the ranks some Native American tribes gave to their best scouts ; Wolf was the name of the cannon made in the railway workshops at Mafeking.

De la Rey led an attack that resulted in the first shots of the war being fired at Kraaipan in an attack on a British armored train that was on its way back to Kimberley from Mafeking.

Methuen was tasked with clearing the country along the Vaal River on the Boers ’ flank and driving towards Mafeking, which was still besieged.

The area of Mafeking ( now Mafikeng ) in which the administration was housed was called ' The Imperial Reserve '.

Twelve hundred Canadian troops were part of the South Africa Constabulary under the leadership of Robert Baden-Powell, and it was after seeing these troops in action at the Relief of Mafeking that Baden-Powel ordered 10, 000 of these hats for the British Troops under his command.

After the Siege of Mafeking, during the Second Anglo-Boer War, one of the supply depots established by Robert Baden-Powell as he moved towards Pretoria was in Swartruggens.

The short stories that he wrote during this period formed the basis for another of his best-known books, Mafeking Road.

Only three of his books were published during his lifetime: Mafeking Road published by Dassie, and Jacaranda in the Night and Cold Stone Jug published by APB.

* 1900 – Second Boer War: British troops relieve Mafeking.

** Second Boer War: The British Army relieves the Siege of Mafeking.

In the first phase, the Boers mounted pre-emptive strikes into British-held territory in Natal and the Cape Colony, besieging the British garrisons of Ladysmith, Mafeking and Kimberley.

With elements of both speed and surprise the Boer drove quickly towards the major British garrison at Ladysmith and the smaller ones at Mafeking and Kimberley.

Meanwhile to the north-west at Mafeking, on the border with Transvaal, Colonel Robert Baden-Powell had raised two regiments of local forces amounting to some 1, 200 men in order to attack and create diversions if things further south went amiss.

But this quickly subsided into a desultory affair with the Boers prepared to starve the stronghold into submission, and so, on 13 October, began the 217-day Siege of Mafeking.

Siege life took its toll on both the defending soldiers and the civilians in the cities of Mafeking, Ladysmith, and Kimberley as food began to grow scarce after a few weeks.

In Mafeking, Sol Plaatje wrote, " I saw horseflesh for the first time being treated as a human foodstuff.

The British lost 120 killed and 690 wounded and were prevented from relieving Kimberley and Mafeking.

Meanwhile, he detached a small force to relieve Baden-Powell, and the Relief of Mafeking on 18 May 1900 provoked riotous celebrations in Britain.

It is best known internationally for the Siege of Mafeking, the most famous engagement of the Second Boer War.

The Jameson Raid started from Pitsani Pothlugo ( or Potlogo ) north of Mafeking on December 29, 1895.

The Siege of Mafeking lasted 217 days from October 1899 to May 1900, and turned Robert Baden-Powell into a national hero.