This flag flew over Mafeking on Sundays, October 11th, 1899 to May 18th, 1900. On weekdays a smaller flag was used in order not to give away the position of our Headquarters to the Boers (who did not fight on Sundays). The defence of Mafeking was the climax of B-P's military career. His heroic and brilliant defence of this small town in the Cape made him a national hero. In fact, such was the wild rejoicing at the news that a new word - "mafecking" - was added to the English language.
Mafeking was a small frontier town held by B-P with only 1,250 armed mean, many of them untrained, against a besieging force of 9,000 Boers. B-P called the Seige a great bluff from start to finish. He was continually inventing means of deceiving the enemy and keeping them guessing. For instance, a number of apparently explosive mines were laid all round the town. Danger notices were put near them so that the information would quickly reach the Boers by spies.
One was tested, producing a loud explosion. Actually all the "mines" except the one tested were boxes of sand by the ruse fooled the Boers and made them very wary of approaching the town at night.
Dummy figures were placed in various forts and moved from time to time to give the enemy the impression that all forts were fully manned. Even some of the forts themselves were dummies.

Source "The Scout", Date unknown.

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