Black Week

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Black Week is a phrase frequently used in the popular press to mark periods of a few days when a string of similar unfortunate events occur. Its celebrity usually fades to be replaced by another Black Week a few years later. However, a few Black Weeks have acquired an historical notoriety.

One of the periods which still retains the name was 10-15 December 1899, during the Second Boer War when the British Army suffered three humiliating defeats by the Boer Republics at the battles of Stormberg, Magersfontein and Colenso, with 2300 men killed or wounded.