In total, 22,092 British soldiers were killed, 75,430 returned home sick or wounded and a further 934 missing in the war. Included in that number were Mr. D. D. Stewart, a former secretary of St. Mary’s Victor FC and William Tempest Cockain, a football pioneer who helped found Loughborough Town FC who he captained, trained and acted as club secretary for throughout the early 1890s for the princely sum of £10/annum. The names of Stewart and Cockain along with the other 300 plus Leicestershire soldiers who died in the conflict are inscribed on bronze panels on the Leicester South African (Boer) War memorial situated on the corner of the Town Hall Square, Leicester , at the junction of Every Street and Horsefair Street. Funded by local subscription it was unveiled on 1 July 1909 by Field Marshall Lord Grenfell.
The Second Boer War lasted from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902. In the war, the British Empire fought against the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic (Transvaal Republic) and the Orange Free State. Winston Churchill, who later became famous, was captured but escaped. At this time, the British made use of concentration camps. This weakened the Boers. It helped the British stop the war from lasting any longer. The British troops won the war. As a result, both republics were annexed to the British Empire. Later, both were eventually incorporated into the Union of South Africa, a dominion of the British Empire, in 1910. The 1st Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment served in South Africa throughout the conflict helping to defend Ladysmith (1899-1900) before joining the campaign in the Orange Free State.