Ladysmith

Ladysmith is a city in the Uthukela District of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It lies 230 kilometres north-west of Durban and 365 kilometres south-east of Johannesburg. Important industries in the area include food processing, textiles, and tyre production. Ladysmith is the seat for both the Alfred Duma Local Municipality and Uthukela District Municipality.

The town was named after Juana María de los Dolores de León Smith, also known as "Lady Smith," the Spanish wife of Sir Harry Smith, the Governor of the Cape Colony. It saw numerous actions during the Second Boer War, when after numerous small skirmishes the town was besieged by Boer forces on 2 November 1899. After three British attempts to relieve the defenders and one Boer attempt to take the town all failed, the siege was eventually broken on 28 February 1900. Both Winston Churchill and Mahatma Gandhi were present at the siege, the former as a war correspondent and the latter as a stretcher-bearer.