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?

I think that the wording is SUID-AFRIKAANSE MUNT (around the top ) and SOUTH AFRICAN MINT (around the bottom).

As far as I can tell : 1 (gold badge on neck ribbon) is Grand Commander 2 (star with red circlet) is Grand Commander 3 (star with blue circlet) -- possibly military division? 4 (silver badge on neck ribbon) is probably Commander 5 (blue cross) is Commander in the Military Division (added in 1992) 6 (silver badge on chest ribbon) is either Officer or Member 7 (silver medal on chest ribbon) must be the Medal of the Order (added in 1992). What are the reverse designs?

That I couldn't say. It's certainly odd, using the obverse die for a plain badge with the reverse die for a detailed badge.

The wording reads 'South Africa' at the top and 'Suid- Afrika' at the bottom. This is the SA Artillery collar badge. Worn in chrome since the 1970s, and also used as a beret badge. There are several variants, some with the wording on the obverse.

A couple of other snippets of info : The National Archives of SA's online inventory lists a file about Capt T.C. Devlin of the Normal College Cadet Corps being commissioned as a lieutenant in the volunteer forces in 1908. This suggests that he was a teacher at the college. He may have been the Thomas Charles Devlin who is listed on this page : https://www.geni.com/people/Thomas-Charles-Devlin/5127613714310116659 Update -- Thomas Charles Devlin's marriage register entry from 1900 states that he and his bride were married at the Normal College in Cape Town : https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C91M-B94Q-6?i=2832

It does. Teacher training colleges in SA were also called 'normal colleges' at one time. The Normal College in Cape Town had a cadet detachment, called 'Normal College Cadet Corps', in the late 19th century. Perhaps Devlin was a student or lecturer at the college at that time.

Hendrik, A/M was 'Air Mechanic', the lowest rank in the SAAF. AFS was 'Air Force Station'. The SA Air Force had a station at Gordon's Bay, a village on the False Bay coast about 30 miles from Cape Town. 7 Motor Boat Section was one of several units which the SAAF maintained for rescuing aircrew from aircraft that crashed in the sea. I'm not sure if it was based at Gordon's Bay or at one of the other coastal towns.

Somewhere in or around Oxford, perhaps? The ox standing on the wavy base (representing a "ford") is found in the Oxford borough arms.

Hi 8th Mounted Rifles were the Midlandse Ruiters, formed in Middelburg (Cape Province) in 1913. Disbanded in 1929, together with most of the other Active Citizen Force mounted rifle units.

From Stirling's The Colonials in South Africa (1907) : THE RAND RIFLES. This corps was raised towards the close of 1900, and was generally employed on the defences of Johannesburg and of posts in the surrounding district. They saw some skirmishing and some sharp attacks on posts,but they were not in any big engagement, and had few opportunities of gaining distinction. The corps remained on service till the end of the war. The following Mention was gained : Lord Kitchener's Despatch : 8th March 1902. Pte. P. N. Maskell,promoted Cpl. by Commander-in-Chief for distinguished conduct in defence of post at Brakpan, February 5, when 5 men repulsed 49 Boers. Another unit of the same name was formed in December 1914 for the German South West Africa campaign, and disbanded in December 1919. Both quite distinct from the Witwatersrand Rifles, a Citizen Force (now Reserve Force) regiment formed in 1905.