Sarah Wilson (war correspondent)
Lady Sarah Wilson DStJ RRC became one of the first woman war correspondents in 1899, when she was recruited by Alfred Harmsworth to cover the Siege of Mafeking for the Daily Mail during the Second Boer War.
1893 photograph of Lady Sarah by Henry Walter ('H. Walter') Barnett, whole-plate glass negative
Three soldiers talk with Sarah Wilson in Mafeking. She is seated by the door to her bomb shelter.
Lady Sarah Wilson during the Siege of Mafeking during the Second Boer War
Sarah Wilson, circa 1899.
The siege of Mafeking was a 217-day siege battle for the town of Mafeking in South Africa during the Second Boer War from October 1899 to May 1900. The siege received considerable attention as Lord Edward Cecil, the son of the British prime minister, was in the besieged town, as also was Lady Sarah Wilson, a daughter of the Duke of Marlborough and aunt of Winston Churchill. The siege turned the British commander, Colonel Robert Baden-Powell, into a national hero. The Relief of Mafeking, while of little military significance, was a morale boost for the struggling British.
British Troops repelling a Boer attack at Mafeking
Mafeking Cadets during the siege
Siege of Mafeking, 10 Shillings (1900), Boer War currency issued by authority of Colonel Robert Baden-Powell.
Picture from The Graphic of Boers firing from their trenches at the siege
