Andrew Dinnes

Hi Mervyn, thank you very much for your kind words. The SA Railway Police had SP and RP shoulder titles at some stage. I believe in brass and in white metal. I would be very keen to find out where this badge fits, be it SA or some other colony. Regards Andrew

Hi, I just picked this tiltle up in South Africa. I was wondering if it may be South African, or some other country. Can anybody be of assistance? Regards Andrew

Hi, I am looking for a 2nd Prussian Lifeguards Sabertache badge from the late 1800's. I would like to aquire 1 for my collection, but would also like to know if anybody has a picture(front and back) of an original, as I was told that they had been faked in the 1980's. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Regards Andrew

Thanks Arthur. have a grand week. Regards Andrew

Hi Andrew,

Local convicts. Apparently, having decided to use convict labour to build the roads, the Cape government arranged for sentences routinely to include hard labour. Hence the Afrikaans term for hard labour - 'hardepad' - the convicts were used to build hard roads!

The scheme was the brainchild of the colonial secretary John Montagu. I see that Alf, who started this thread, lives in the town named after him.

The UK government tried shipping its own convicts to the Cape, instead of to Australia, in 1849. That sparked off a public resistance campaign in Cape Town which brought the colonial government to its knees and forced the UK government to back down.

Mervyn,

I'd go along with 1840s/50s. I've recently done some digging into Cape colonial police and prisons history, and learned that it was in the mid-1840s that the government decided to build a network of roads and mountain passes using convict labour. Convict stations were duly set up at the various places where these projects were carried out -- they were run by overseers with 'convict policemen' to control the prisoners.

The convict stations were quite separate from the prisons/gaols, which were organised on a district basis, and run by the Rural Police under overall control of the district magistrates and district prison boards.

Hi Arthur,

Thank you. Were these local prisoners or shipped in?

Regards

Andrew

I think that this is a slightly clearer picture of the Cape of Good Hope Convict Police badge. Regards Andrew

Thank you for the pictures. Regards Andrew

Perhaps someone could show us the new badge - I can't quite make-it out. Is it a flaming grenade ?

I think the badge is the standard SA Infantry badge. This would be in keeping with the army's current policy of only wearing corps badges(with a few exceptions of traditional units).

Mervyn, I look forward to your pictures of the 2 helmet plates.