Colonel Mahon, A Young Irish Officer Who Had Made His Reputation As
A Cavalry Leader In Egypt, Had Started Early
In May from Kimberley
with a small but mobile force consisting of the Imperial Light
Horse (brought round from Natal
For the purpose), the Kimberley
Mounted Corps, the Diamond Fields Horse, some Imperial Yeomanry, a
detachment of the Cape Police, and 100 volunteers from the Fusilier
brigade, with M battery R.H.A. and pom-poms, twelve hundred men in
all. Whilst Hunter was fighting his action at Rooidam on May 4th,
Mahon with his men struck round the western flank of the Boers and
moved rapidly to the northwards. On May 11th they had left Vryburg,
the halfway house, behind them, having done one hundred and twenty
miles in five days. They pushed on, encountering no opposition save
that of nature, though they knew that they were being closely
watched by the enemy. At Koodoosrand it was found that a Boer force
was in position in front, but Mahon avoided them by turning
somewhat to the westward. His detour took him, however, into a
bushy country, and here the enemy headed him off, opening fire at
short range upon the ubiquitous Imperial Light Horse, who led the
column. A short engagement ensued, in which the casualties amounted
to thirty killed and wounded, but which ended in the defeat and
dispersal of the Boers, whose force was certainly very much weaker
than the British. On May 15th the relieving column arrived without
further opposition at Masibi Stadt, twenty miles to the west of
Mafeking.
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