Arthur R

Photo published in the Militaria journal (Vol 19 No 3) in 1989. The full article ('The South African National Museum of Military History') is available as a pdf (1.42 MB) on this website : https://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za/pub/issue/view/58

Hi Marcon1 My actual knowledge of Transkei awards is pretty much limited to what's listed in the 2005 Consolidated Official Table of Precedence. As the Order of Transkei badge looks gold and has a fitting for a neck ribbon, I would guess it's either the Grand Cross or the Commander. Interesting that the photos show both gold and silver badges for the Order of the Aloe, as the table of precedence lists only one class. I hadn't noticed the 'Pro Patria Medal' on the reverse of the badge. No such Transkeian medal is listed in the table, nor is it on the defence force webpage about Transkei medals. The ribbon fitting suggests that it was intended to be worn on the chest, so it was possibly either a medal, or perhaps a lower class of the Order of Transkei with an alternative name. It's very frustrating trying to work out these old homeland awards! Even the compilers of the table of precedence struggled, and added footnotes warning that in some cases they had not been able to trace the warrants for the awards, and that, in the absence of full information, some of those listed might actually never have been awarded. Thanks for your enquiry about my website. I'm pleased it has been useful to you. As I have parted company with the host service provider, the site is currently offline, but I intend to find another service provider and re-launch it in due course.

1 is the Order of Transkei, 2 is the Order of the Aloe. 3 might be a military division of the Order of Transkei. This is just a guess, based on the similarity of the star, and the coat of arms on the obverse being the Transkei Defence Force emblem.

The ones with the green ribbons are from the SA bailiwick (branch) of the Order of St Lazarus. It's a private organisation. Never heard of the Order of the Tortoise before, but it's surely also private.

Could be a high school, or perhaps a past pupils association, e.g. Old H---------s. Could also be a sports club. Lots of bowling clubs, for instance, wear lapel badges of this kind.

The green shield with the letters OH and SR, the Prince of Wales' feathers and the lion-and-tusk evidently comes from Southern Rhodesia. Looks rather like a club or society badge.

ACF and QSC as already identified by Gavin. NMC = Native Military Corps. GSC = General Service Corps. Not come cross NMMT before. MT usually stood for "Mechanical Transport" or "Motor Transport".

I don't know for certain, but I would imagine that this medal was awarded to the "beach constables" who used to enforce the city regulations on the beaches, and that it was probably a long service medal. The city fire brigade and traffic police also have/had long service medals.

Sampo is quite correct. ANBS was the Afrikaans name of the department -- I believe it stood for "Afdeling Nie-Blanke Sake". This is an apartheid-era medal, from the period 1955 - 1973. It was awarded to the city's Black municipal police officials who were employed in the Black residential areas of the city. Apparently it was a medal for bravery.

HCS only. To quote the regulations : "only the letters attached to the higher decoration shall be used if a person has received more than one of the said decorations".

The Wikipedia article is correct. This is one of many anomalies in official tables of precedence that have been compiled over the past thirty years or so. The problem may partly arise from the fact that no official table was published between 1967 and 1993, and the SADF, SAP et al were left to make their own rules. A draft SADF 'Proposed Order of Precedence' dated 1979 lists these decoration in the following order : Van Riebeeck Decoration - HC Silver - HC (apparently both 1952 and 1975). A draft table drawn up by or for the SAP in 1990 ranked them as DVR - HC 1952 - HCS - HC 1975. However, the official table gazetted in 1993 ranked them as : HC 1952 - HCS - DVR - HC 1975. This was carried over to the 2005 table, which is the most recent.

The John Chards and the Good Service Medals can certainly be worn together by those who qualified for them. In this case, the precedence would be - SADF Good Service Gold (30 years) - JCD (20 years) - JCM (10 or 12 years).

Dug is quite correct. The prescribed order of wearing is : Orders and decorations for bravery and meritorious service - including the HC, PMM, DTM and MMM Campaign and general service medals - including the Pro Patria, Southern Africa and General Service Medals Commemorative medals - including the Unitas Medal Long service medals - including the John Chard and De Wet Medals Sports achievement awards Champion shot medals.

A nice variety of decorations you have there, Wessel. I would also treat them as four separate groups. Were they all to have been awarded to one person, then he would follow his country's order of precedence which, in SA is : - SA awards (post-1952) - UK awards (including VC) and pre-1952 SA awards - other countries' awards, in order of date earned. In SA, the VC has been ranked as a foreign award since 1967 (if not 1961) and it no longer outranks the Honoris Crux. The current rankings in each country are : SA : HC -- Pro Patria. UK : VC -- GC -- MBE -- MC. USA : DSC -- LoM -- PH.

Thanks for posting the reverses of the three mystery medals, Alex. Definitely the Bop coat of arms. I wonder what on earth they are. They aren't any of the Bop awards that are listed in the 2005 consolidated table of precedence (unless one of them is the State President's Medal for Shooting, of which I've never seen a pic or description). Prototypes of medals that were never finalised perhaps?