The Mafeking Cadet Corps was a group of boy

cadet A cadet is a student or trainee within various organisations, primarily in military contexts where individuals undergo training to become commissioned officers. However, several civilian organisations, including civil aviation groups, maritime ...

s formed by Lord Edward Cecil shortly before the 217 day Siege of Mafeking in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

during the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic and ...

in 1899–1900. Cecil, the son of the British prime minister, was the staff officer and second-in-command of the garrison. The cadets consisted of volunteer boys below fighting age and were used to support the troops, carry messages, and help in the hospital. This freed up men for military duties, and kept the boys occupied. The cadets were given khaki uniforms, a wide-brimmed hat which they wore with one side turned up and a Glengarry cap. The towns people often commented on their smartness. 13-year-old Sergeant-Major Warner Goodyear was their leader. The Mafeking Cadets are claimed to be one of the inspirations for the Boy Scouts.

Cadet duties

One of the cadets' duties was to carry messages around the town and to outlying forts, sometimes as much as a mile away across open ground. At first they used donkeys, but as the siege ran on, food became scarce and the donkeys were killed and eaten. From then on, the cadets used bicycles instead. Another important duty was to act as lookouts, mainly to warn the townspeople when the Boer siege guns were aimed and fired at different parts of the town. The town produced its own postage stamps, known as "Mafeking Blues", for postage during the siege. One set depicted the cadet leader Warner Goodyear seated on a bicycle. The Mafeking stamps were unusual among the stamps of the British Empire at that time, because they did not depict the monarch. Frankie Brown, a nine-year-old boy, was killed by a shell during the siege, and is sometimes claimed as a cadet casualty, although it is unlikely that he was a cadet. The youngest cadets on the nominal roll were aged 11. At the end of the siege, 24 cadets were awarded the Defence of Mafeking bar to the Queen's South Africa Medal.

Inspiration for Boy Scouts

Robert Baden-Powell was the British commander during the siege of Mafeking. He was impressed by the cadets and wrote of them in the opening pages of his 1908 book, ''

Scouting for Boys ''Scouting for Boys: A handbook for instruction in good citizenship'' is a book on Boy Scout training, published in various editions since 1908. Early editions were written and illustrated by Robert Baden-Powell with later editions being exten ...

''. Baden-Powell related the following conversation with one of the cadets: ''I said to one of these boys on one occasion, when he came in through rather a heavy fire: 'You will get hit one of these days riding about like that when shells are flying'. And he replied 'I pedal so quick, Sir, they'd never catch me'.''

References

Scouting Military units and formations of the Second Boer War Military units and formations of the British Empire Scouting and Guiding in South Africa {{Scouting, other