Ladysmith Road, Salisbury

Ladysmith Road is a small cul-de-sac off from Roman Road, to the north west of Salisbury.

It’s probably named in reference to the siege of Ladysmith during the Boer War.

Image from Amazon

I thought it possible that Ladysmith Road is named after somebody with the surname ‘Ladysmith’, but it turns out that this is extremely unlikely – I did a search for Ladysmith on the National Trust surnames database and found it’s not listed¹

Many of the roads nearby are named on the theme of Empire – Roman Road, Centurion Close, New Zealand Avenue, or a more general patriotism – Queen Alexandra Road, Queen Mary Road and Tournament Road Salisbury (named, I think, in reference to the 1948 London Olympics).

Ladysmith is a good ‘fit’ with the themes of patriotism and Empire.

Ladysmith today

The city of Ladysmith is very roughly halfway between Johannesburg and Durban², in the Uthukela district of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It has a population of about 200,000³.

The Siege of Ladysmith

Ladysmith is still most famous for the siege of 1899 to 1900.

During the 2nd Boer War, British commander Lieutenant General Sir George White had made Ladysmith his Natal headquarters. In October 1899, the Boers launched several attacks on British forces in the area. The British retreated back into Ladysmith to re-group.

The Boers surrounded the town on the 2nd November.

The British failed three times to break the siege – at the battles of Colenso, Spion Kop and Vaal Krantz.

The siege lasted until 28th February 1900. Around 3000 British soldiers died in the siege.

The Etymology of Ladysmith

The Boers had bought the land that is now Ladysmith from the Zulus in 1847, but it had been annexed by the British shortly afterwards.

The township of ‘Windsor’ was founded in June of 1850.⁴

The name lasted until October of the same year when the name was changed to ‘Ladysmith’.

‘Ladysmith’ was a counterpoint to the town of ‘Harrismith’, which had been founded in ???, and named after the then Governor of the Cape, Sir Harry Smith. Sir Harry’s wife was called Juana Maria de los Dolores de Leon Smith – presumably ‘Juanasmith’ was not as easy on the British ear as Ladysmith.

The Etymology of Ladysmith Black Mambazo

In researching this post, I was curious as to the origins of the name of the South African vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. According to the city of Durban’s website⁵, the name is derived as follows:

• Ladysmith – for the home town of the band’s leader Joseph Shabalala
• Black – for the strongest ox on the farm
• Mambazo – from the Zulu word for axe

The ‘axe’ here according to the website, is ‘symbolising the band’s ability to chop down the competition’. For me this carries a slight echo of Bob Marley’s ‘Small Axe’, which is also ostensibly about cutting musical rivals down to size⁶

Ladysmith as a road name – reasons for popularity

So, why is Ladysmith such a popular road name?

I can think of a few possible reasons.

A popular war?

First, I think it’s fair to say that the Boer War was comparatively popular.

This isn’t to make any value judgement about the purpose or the conduct of the war – I just mean that it seemed to have enjoyed some measure of public support, or at least perhaps, a lack of appreciation of the war’s full horrors.

A comparison with the First World War might help to make my point.

20,000 British people died in the Boer War⁷. Five million died in World War I⁸. While 20,000 deaths is an appalling tragedy, it perhaps wouldn’t touch every town, village and family in the way that the Great War did.

The Boer War was storied by Baden-Powell, founder of the Scouting movement and Winston Churchill. World War I gave us Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and Rupert Brooke. While it would be wrong to characterize Baden-Powell and Winston Churchill as ‘gung-ho’ in their account of the war, there would have been a different emphasis in the way people would perceive the war.

Finally, communication from the front back to England was obviously much faster from Europe than it was from South Africa. Photography and even film were being used. The war was a lot closer to home, and first-hand accounts would have come back fairly quickly.

So my argument is that the locations and symbols of later wars would be weighed down with an appreciation of the human costs. This was not so much the case for the Boer War. Hence the country has many Ladysmith Roads, but few ‘Dunkirk Streets’ or ‘Ypres Terraces’.

Churchill – London to Ladysmith

The fame of the siege and relief of Ladysmith was enhanced by the writing of Sir Winston Churchill. Whatever else Churchill achieved he was a very good writer. Much of his income for most of his life was derived from book sales and for journalism. Winston was imprisoned in Pretoria, but escaped, joined the South African Light Horse and was present at both the Battle of Spion Kop ⁹and the relief of Ladysmith.

This made him something of a national hero¹⁰, so perhaps his subsequent book was bound to do well.

The Churchill Centre’s website¹¹ says that his book London To Ladysmith Via Pretoria¹² is

the most exciting early Churchill work, this colorful book sets down Churchill’s Boer War experiences, including his escape from the Boers after the Armoured Train attack and his return to British lines

In the book, Churchill writes:

As the war drives slowly to its close more substantial triumphs, larger battles, wherein the enemy suffers heavier loss, the capture of towns, and the surrender of armies may mark its progress.

But whatever victories the future may have in store, the defence and relief of Ladysmith, because they afford, perhaps, the most remarkable examples of national tenacity and perseverance which our later history contains, will not be soon forgotten by the British people, whether at home or in the Colonies. ¹³

Small wonder perhaps, that the event which one of Britains national heroes calls ‘the most remarkable examples of national tenacity and perseverance which our later history contains’ is commemorated by road names up and down the country,

An English-sounding name

More prosaically,perhaps Ladysmith was seen as a good road name because it is derived from English. This is perhaps part of the reason why there are three roads named after Ladysmith in London¹⁴, but only one named after Mafeking ¹⁵. The pattern seems to be repeated across the country – there are Ladysmith Roads in Swindon, Bristol, Gloucester and Cheltenham. There is a Mafeking Road in Portsmouth but many others in the South West as far as I can see.

‘Ladysmith’ couldn’t be easier to pronounce and to spell – especially compared to a word like Pretoria or Mafeking – and it has a nice balance of the refined ‘Lady’ and the everyday ‘Smith’

High-point of naming things

Finally, ‘Ladysmith’ comes from a time when naming things along patriotic lines was frequent.

The Princess of Wales at the time was Alexandra, who had boats, hospitals, a horse race, a Nursing Corps and Queen Alexandra Road named after. The Queen was Victoria, who in Salisbury has both the Park and Victoria Road named in her honour in Salisbury, and London is full of references to the royals of that generation – the V & A Museum, the Albert Hall, Victoria Station and of course the Queen Vic in Eastenders.

I think it’s the case that patriotism was expressed at that time was expressed in the names of public building, institutions and roads.

Ladysmith Road in Salisbury I would guess was built some time later, but was perhaps named in the same spirit.

Footnotes

1. National Trust Names: Select a name – Ladysmith [↩]
2. Ladysmith & Surrounds – Home [↩]
3. Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [↩]
4. The Town — Ladysmith History & The Boer War [↩]
5. eThekwini Online – Joseph Shabalala [↩]
6. Bob Marley’s song is possibly more about what was then the Jamaican musical establishment, rather than his then peers. There’s a excellent discussion of the song’s various meanings in David Moskovitz book ‘The words and music of Bob Marley‘. I don’t know whether Jo Shabalala knew the Wailers’ ‘Small Axe’ song or not [↩]
7. Second Boer War – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [↩]
8. World War I – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [↩]
9. Spion Kop inspired the naming of the Kop at Anfield – the football ground of Liverpool FC. Liverpool are a mid-table English Premiership team :) [↩]
10. Winston Churchill – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [↩]
11. The Books of Sir Winston Churchill [↩]
12. This is an Amazon affliate link [↩]
13. The Project Gutenberg eBook of London To Ladysmith Via Pretoria, by Winston Spencer Churchill. [↩]
14. London streets beginning with l: Page 1 [↩]
15. London streets beginning with m: Page 1 [↩]