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Cover Of Sheet Music “Grand Military Fantasia: Descriptive Of The Relief Of Ladysmith”

Cover to sheet music decorated with a colored background of military banners and a scene showing kilted red coated soldiers marching in column through mountainous terrane led by officers mounted on horses. Overlain are black and white oval shaped photographs of the principal military commanders, both British and Boer, at the siege of Ladysmith.

Source: National Library of Australia.

Date: 1900

 

Cover of Sheet Music “Grand Military Fantasia: Descriptive of the Relief of Ladysmith”, written for pianoforte by Landon Roberts in 1900 to celebrate the Relief of the siege of the town of Ladysmith, South Africa, during the Second Boer War.

In the early days of the Second Boer War (1899 – 1902), Boer forces encircled and besieged a British force led by General Sir George White in the garrison town of Ladysmith, South Africa. The siege, which resulted in significant suffering to the besieged, lasted 118 days and was relieved by British forces under General Sir Redvers Buller on February 28th, 1900. This was the cause of much rejoicing throughout the British Empire. A number of professional broadsheet composers, including Landon Roberts, Theodore Bonheur and Ezra Read, made money by composing and selling music for the pianoforte to be played in private homes to celebrate the event. The covers and the music were very patriotic in nature.