Spion Kop - British Troops Advancing. Editorial Image

Spion Kop - British troops advancing to the capture of the hill occupied by Boer forces, in the early morning of January 24th 1900. From a drawing by R. Caton Woodville. The Battle of Spion Kop was a military engagement between British forces and two Boer Republics—the South African Republic and the Orange Free State—during the campaign by the British to relieve the besieged city Ladysmith during the initial months of the Second Boer War.Social history.