Arthur R

The badge with the liberty bell and the oil lamp could be the DUI of the US Army Quartermaster Center - there's a pic of it at http://en.wikipedia....nter_and_School.

What does UVR stand for, and can any information be dug up on Lieutenant Ruddle? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Perhaps Uitenhage Volunteer Rifles. a Cape Colony unit that existed from 1892 to 1914. Does the pistol date from that period?

What has puzzled me however, is the Lieutenants medal. If he was an officer, why has he recieved the medal not the Officers Decoration? The awarding rules mentioned in 'Australians Awarded' do read, however, "The recipient can be of any rank, but if an officer he would not have had the time required in the commissioned rank to qualify for the Officers Decoration." This could indicate he did in fact serve in the Boer war as a sergeant or lance-corporal and got his promotion to lieutenant, and medal, later.

It certainly fits. The medal was for 20 years service irrespective of rank, whereas the decoration was for 20 years service as a commissioned officer. AFAIK, Anglo-Boer War service didn't count double, only WWI service did.

Someone who was commissioned after a period of service in the ranks would therefore have qualified for the medal first, and only have qualified for the decoration if he'd continued to serve until he reached the 20th anniversary of his commission.

On the face of it then, it looks very likely that Lt Castine did serve in the ranks before being commissioned - given that after 20 years service he was only a lieutenant, he may have been commissioned fairly late in his career. For him to have qualified for the decoration, he may have had to serve quite a number of years longer, which he may not have wished or been able to do.

Thanks Arthur,

Any more details on the previous helmet I posted?

Nothing concrete. There's a photo in Alexander/Barron/Bateman's book on SA medals which shows two railways policemen wearing white helmets in 1945, but no badges are visible. I'd guess the coat of arms badge may be pre-WWII, perhaps dating from the reorganisation of the force in 1934. The badge has 'SAS' rather than 'ZAS' which suggests post-1926.

CLOSE UP PHOTOGRAPH OF THE BADGE

The 1957-86 version of the badge, with the Voortrekker Monument in place of the crown on top. This design, with the crown, had been introduced around 1955.

They were disbanded - I think in the 1970's - perhaps someone could give the date?

1 October 1986.

I'm guessing you may have had something to do with the unit ?

No connection - I just have the information. Living in Cape Town, I often used to see the SPG sentries standing at the gate outside the Groote Schuur estate in Rondebosch, looking rather incongruously ruritanian next to a concrete highway.

I recall that before the uniform was changed to the "stepouts" in 1985, an even more ruritanian outfit was designed, with a blue tunic (with orange facings and white piping and Austrian knots) and a white helmet with plumes. The unit rejected it, and the blue tunics tunics later ended up being worn by the newly formed Castle Guard instead.

This is a very interesting South African shako - worn by the State President'd Guard until the change over in 1994. This was worn during normal parades and guard postings - for ceremonial occasions there was a white pith helmet , with spike, however, both used the same enamel badge. They have become rare.

I'd forgotten they used to have an ostrich feather plume on the shako!

To amplify the chronology:

- State President's Guard was formed in May 1967, at the request of outgoing President Swart

- adopted a dark green full dress uniform with gold frogging, and this shako (uniform was loosely based on that of the 19th-century State Artillery in the Transvaal republic)

- cap badge was the South African national coat of arms

- name was changed to State President's Unit in December 1985, under President Botha

- full dress uniform was replaced by "stepout" service dress uniform with a white polo helmet with spike

- unit was disbanded in the early 1990s, under President De Klerk

- unit was revived c2000 as the Ceremonial Guard Unit, under President Mbeki

- uniform is similar to the 1967-85 uniform, but the shako does not have the plume, and the badge is a 5-pointed star in a wreath.

This is a very interesting South African shako - worn by the State President'd Guard until the change over in 1994. This was worn during normal parades and guard postings - for ceremonial occasions there was a white pith helmet , with spike, however, both used the same enamel badge. They have become rare.

Thanks for the photo - I'd forgotten the ostrich feather plume!

To amplify the chronology:

- State P

For the 1st World War, his BWM is still in the family's possession but no other medal. This may be his only WW1 medal as he was working as the Chief Signaller of one of the lighthouses in Cape Town (maybe also during the war period). Not sure if he served in the GSWA campaign.

Hi Norman

From the Cape of Good Hope Civil Service List 1910: an H.W. Gilbert was 2nd Assistant Lightkeeper at the Great Fish Point lighthouse. His date of appointment (and entry into the Civil Service) was 4 January 1908.

The images posted here looks similar to the Defence Force Merit Decoration so it might be a case of mistaken identity.

Yup, that's the Defence Force Merit Decoration.

The Order of the Leopard was a civil honour, established at the time of independence in 1977. It was apparently reorganised, and expanded to include a military division, in 1992.

The original badge of the order was an 16-pointed star:

Apparently the following are post-1992 insignia of the order -- I don't know whether of the military division only, or both civil and military divisions:

Could also be the South Africa Medal 1877-79, which seems more likely if the wearer was photographed in Pretoria in the 1890s. The suspender and the clasp designs are similar for both medals. And perhaps it's a trick of the light, but the small section of ribbon below the clasp seems to have some dark patches towards each edge, which would fit the pattern of the SA Medal ribbon. The BNBC Medal ribbon is light-coloured with a dark centre stripe, the 'punitive expeditions' ribbon being dark with two light-coloured bands.

A fantastic group indeed, and thanks for showing it.

Interesting that a man from Potchefstroom mounted his war medal and wound ribbon as if he were from the Orange Free State - as a Transvaler, he would normally have had the ribbons with the green stripe to the left and the medal with the ZA Republiek arms as the 'obverse'.

WW2 service would have been non-military, e.g. working in a recognised organisation that supported the war effort.

Thanks. I made a (very) rough translation of the newspaper article:

Platoon commander Captain Marco Kroon of the Korps Commandotroepen (KCT) will be appointed a Knight 4th Class of the Militaire Willemsorde on 29 May. Premier Jan Peter Balkenende told the troops in Tarin Kowt that Queen Beatrix is appointing Kroon for courage, leadership, and devotion.

Marco Kroon, a 38-year-old resident of Hertogenbosch, led a platoon of commandos in a mission from March to August 2006, during the period that Task Force Uruzgan was built up.. His subordinates and superiors have recommended him for a decoration for gallantry for his actions in Afghanistan.

During his six months posting, he led his platoon successfully through several heavy and sometimes lengthy actions, without loss of personnel. In addition, he took personal risks, for example to enable a coalition partner to evacuate a wounded soldier. On another occasion, he led his unit in a fight out of an ambush while the gunner of his vehicle was wounded.

The deeds described by his colleagues in the citation were such that defence minister Eimert van Middelkoop consulted the chancery of the Militaire Willemsorde for advice. On the basis thereof, the minister recommended Kroon to the queen for award of the order.

Kroon receives the decoration for many exceptional actions and his total conduct as a leader, a soldier, and a person. "We must be proud of heroes such as this captain," said premier Jan Peter Balkenende. Van Middelkoop also called Kroon "a hero" and praised his courage and loyalty.

From the Defence website (http://www.defensie.nl/missies/nieuws/isaf...Orde_in_50_jaar)

a further detail:

During another operation, he 'purified' a village, a mountain pass, and a valley of Taliban in nine days of continuous combat actions. Further details will be made known at the time of the presentation in May.

Is there any reason why he would have the Netherlands' award?

His wife, Princess Alice, whom he married in 1904, was first cousin of Queen Wilhelmina (their mothers were sisters, princesses of Waldeck-Pyrmont), so there was a connection.

I've always wondered why no campaign medal was issued for this war?

Probably because the British lost the war - and the Transvaal.

A New South African medal - Gold medal for Merit - Protea.

Has anyone got any more pictures of New South African Defence Force Medals?

This appears to be the silver class of the decoration: iPhrothiya yeSiliva/Silver Protea, but the ribbon is that of the Nkwe ya Gauta/Golden Leopard, which is the highest decoration for bravery.

Pics and details of all current SA National Defence Force medals (and pics of earlier SA military decorations and medals) are available on the SANDF website:

http://www.army.mil.za/aboutus/uniform/sandfmedals/index.htm

The Tudor crown dates this badge as pre-1952, but the Crown Prosecution Service was established only in 1986.

Is it definitely a UK badge? I was wondering if the initials might stand for something like "Civil Protection Service". There was a South African organisation of that name during WW2, but their badges would probably have had the equivalent Afrikaans initials BBD as well.

Further to the above, some other thoughts on GSWA a century ago.

-- There was also a British Army spy named Alexander Scotland who served in the Schutztruppe in GSWA around that period. In WWII he was a lieutenant-colonel in charge of interrogating German PoWs -- he wrote memoirs entitled The London Cage.

-- The 'Kalahari 1907' clasp to the SWA Denkmunze was not issued to British troops but to a squadron of the Cape Mounted Police, which hunted down a fugitive Herero leader named Morenga, who had escaped across the border into the northern Cape. Inspector Francis Elliott, who commanded the detachment, was awarded the DSO and the Prussian Order of the Crown 2nd class with swords. One of the CMP troopers was Hubert Wakefield, who rose to be a general in the defence force in the 1930s, and in photos of him taken between the world wars you can see the distinctive SWA Denkmunze ribbon on his tunic.

-- Late in 1906 a gang of Boers, led by a man named Ferreira, crossed into the Cape from GSWA, and raided several dorps as they headed towards the Transvaal, reputedly to stir up trouble against the British administration there. The Cape Mounted Riflemen were sent from the eastern Cape to to hunt them down, and the raiders were duly caught, tried, and imprisoned (only to be released under a general amnesty when the Union of SA was established in 1910). No medals for this operation.

It was suspected that the Germans had been behind this "Ferreira Raid", and in 1907 the Cape government prepared a war plan, the Western Defence Scheme, as a contingency against a German invasion from GSWA.

For what it's worth as a story, if not necessarily accurate history: from South African author Lawrence G, Green's To the River's End (1948) --

--- extract ---

One day during the German-Hottentot War the Cape Mounted Police officer at Rietfontein [in the northern Cape] sent this message by helio: "European arrived here in exhausted state, alleges name is Ironside, Imperial officer employed on special service, please verify and instruct."

The exhausted man who had trudged through the desert and across the border was no impostor. He was Captain Ironside of the Royal Artillery, later Field Marshal Sir Edmund Ironside. In the early years of this century Ironside was posted to Roberts Heights as an intelligence officer. He learnt to speak Afrikaans like a Transvaal Boer; then he grew a beard and slipped across into German South-West Africa to find out whether the German military forces were being built up for the native wars -- or some more important campaign.

Ironside was accepted by the Germans as an Afrikaner and employed as a transport rider. He had his dog with him, a mongrel which he had befriended in Pretoria; and one night Ironside was alarmed to find the dog still wearing a collar bearing the name 'Captain Ironside R.A.'. This mistake might have proved fatal, but apparently the Germans had never looked at the collar.

Months passed before the suspicions of the Germans were aroused. Then they played an old trick on Ironside. He had pretended that he knew no English. He awoke one night to find a German asking him questions in English. It is not easy to catch a man like Ironside off his guard, and sleepy though he was, he replied in Afrikaans. Nevertheless, he saw that the game was up and at the first opportunity he took a waterbottle and some food and headed for Rietfontein.

Ironside's maps of the border, with every waterhole marked accurately, were used long afterwards, in the 1914-1918 War and again in 1922 when the Bondelswarts rose in revolt. He must have been an ideal intelligence officer and a fine linguist. I am told that he got on well with the Germans for months by holding forth on every possible occasion as a great admirer of the Kaiser!

--- end of extract ---

Very dramatic and rather a "ripping yarn", but who knows ...

It'll be interesting to see what King's College comes up with.

According to the King's College London military archives' website

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/cats/macleod/ma32-01-.htm ,

Ironside served in the German campaign against the Bondelzwarts and the Herero. If so, perhaps he received the Suedwest-Afrika-Denkmunze, which was the campaign medal for those operations.

I have a note that the medal was instituted in 1995.

Hi, I have also noticed that the Louw Wepener Decoration seems to be bronze and the Louw Wepener Medal seems to be in silver - when I think they should be the other way round.

Cheers - SAMedals

Well spotted. Now that I take a closer look at those two pics, I see that the LWM is not only silver when it should be bronze, but the wording is English before Afrikaans, when it should be the other way round. I'd guess that that particular photo has been doctored at some point.

Just found out that the SA Army website has colour photos (not very good quality) of past and present SA military medals, including those from the former homelands.

http://www.army.mil.za/aboutus/uniform/for...edals/index.htm

I've picked up an error though: the "President's Medal for Shooting" shown on the former SADF medal page was actually a Ciskei Defence Force medal.

Hi Brett,

I was in the National Library today, so I had a look at Owen's roll of the Korea Medal and unfortunately it doesn't indicate units. However, FWIW, I spotted three more names to add to the list of Korea veterans who reached general rank:

Maj Gen Christiaan Hartzenberg -- Adjutant-General 1959-68

Maj Gen Pieter Retief -- Director-General of Military Intelligence 1961-66

Maj Gen Toby Moll -- Chief of Defence Staff 1966-67

Going back to the photo of Lt Gen Armstrong's medals and insignia, there are two interesting things about it:

1 - the US Presidential Unit Citation awarded to 2 Squadron is missing

2 - in addition to the collar of the Order of the Star of SA, he had the SSA badge mounted on his medal bar, which is unorthodox. It was supposed to be worn on a neck ribbon. I'm guessing that he did this because he'd retired by the time the order was conferred on him, and it may have been simpler to wear the order this way with civilian clothes. He qualified for the order because he'd been awarded the original SSA decoration and was still in service on 1 July 1975, when it was replaced by the order, but the actual conferment didn't take place until 1977.