Episode 22 - The relief of Kimberley

We’re up to Episode 22 in this series, and this week the story shifts to Kimberley itself. Earlier - around podcasts 2 and 3, I described how this town was really in the hands of the de Beers Mining company with its CEO, Cecil John Rhodes, very much in charge of affairs. However, the actual military commander in chief of the town was Lieutenant colonel RG Kekewitch. And in this town there had been a four month struggle between Kekewitch and one of the world’s richest men at the time, Cecil John Rhodes. So it worked like this - Rhodes was de Beers, and de Beers was Kimberley. His colossal ego had reduced the siege at times to a dangerous melodrama. Rhodes had implied during the siege that if the British didn’t hurry up and rescue him, he may hand over the town to the Boers. We need to go back a few days in February to reveal what was happening, and how Lord Roberts who was in command of the British Army Cops and based just south of Kimberley near the Modder River, lost patience with Rhodes and ordered Kekewitch to lock up any one who threatened surrender to the Boers.