Scorched earth
A scorched-earth policy is a military strategy that aims to destroy anything that might be useful to the enemy while it is advancing through or withdrawing from a location. Any assets that could be used by the enemy may be targeted, for example food sources, water supplies, transportation, communications, industrial resources, and even the locale's people themselves.
Queen's South Africa Medal
Many recipients of the medal were involved in the scorched earth policy that marked the last twenty months of the war, implemented when it became clear that the Boer guerrilla tactics could not be overcome by conventional means. To prevent Boer forces resupplying from a home base, many Boer farms were destroyed and non-combatants moved to concentration camps, where poor conditions led to nearly 28,000 out of 116,572 detainees dying over an 18-month period, 22,000 of them under 16.