General Colley had been a highly-successful proteg of Sir Garnet Wolseley, whom he succeeded in 1880 as Governor and Commander in Chief in Natal. In February 1881, following a severe reverse at the hands of the Boers at Laing's Nek some weeks earlier, Colley was in command of a force of approximately battalion strength which occupied Majuba Mountain. The Boers assaulted the mountain and by superior tactics and marksmanship forced the British from the summit. Colley himself refused to retreat and was eventually shot through the head at close range. This catastrophic defeat, which effectively ended the First Boer War, was not avenged until Lord Roberts destroyed the Boer army at Paardeberg in 1900.