The
Siege of Kimberley took place during the
Second Boer War at
Kimberley,
Cape Colony (present-day South Africa), when
Boer forces from the
Orange Free State and the
Transvaal besieged the diamond mining town. The Boers moved quickly to try to capture the British enclave when war broke out between the British and the two Boer republics in October 1899. The town was ill-prepared, but the defenders organised an energetic and effective improvised defence that was able to prevent it from being taken.