Anglo-Boere Oorlog Medal 1899-1902

[Guest Darrell]

The South African Republic and Orange Free State War Medal, commonly referred to as the "Anglo-Boere Oorlog Medal", was a South African military campaign medal. It was authorized on 21 December 1920, as a retrospective award for Boer veterans of the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902).

The medal was awarded, on application, to veterans who had served in the Boer forces between 11 October 1899 and 31 May 1902. As neither of the Boer republics (the Orange Free State and the South African Republic) had had official honors systems of their own, this medal was created to give the Boer veterans parity with their fellow-South Africans who had fought on the British side in the war.

The medal is silver. Both sides depict an ornamental frame, encircled by the words "Anglo-Boere Oorlog 1899-1902". One side has the arms of the SAR in the centre of the frame, and the other side has the OFS arms. This enabled each recipient to wear the medal so as to display the arms of the state for which he had fought.

The ribbon, as worn by an SAR veteran, is green, red, white, blue, and yellow. An OFS veteran would have reversed the ribbon so that the yellow stripe was on the left.

The ABO can still be issued subject to the demands for proof being met. The last award was made in September 1975. In all approximately 13,751 ABOs were issued.

The following medal is named along the rim to Burger P.Z. Fourie. It also came with the ABO Application form which lists Pieter Zacharias Fourie as having served in the Commando of "Gen. Liebenberg". Another source lists P J Liebenberg as one of the Commandants of the Potchefstroom Commando, which operated mostly in the western Transvaal, and Fourie was evidently with this Commando when he was captured. Fourie mentions on his form that he was with Commandant Erasmus and General Botha at Ladysmith. Erasmus was the Commandant of the Pretoria Commando and General Botha took over command of the Natal campaign at an early stage, so he was under these men in Natal during the early part of the war.

Also attached is the published ABO Medal Roll form.

Listed operations he took part in are listed below:

Elandslaagte

Ladysmith

Majuba (= Laing's Nek to the British)

Donkerhoek

Silikats Nek

Klerksdorp

He was captured on November 30, 1901 at Cyferfontein at age 26 and subsequently shipped off to St. Helena as a POW.

Medal Obverse:

[Guest Darrell]

Closeup of Obverse:

[Guest Darrell]

Reverse:

[Guest Darrell]

Closeup of Reverse:

[Guest Darrell]

Impressed naming on rim:

[Guest Darrell]

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[Guest Darrell]

..

[Guest Darrell]

ABO Application Form:

[Guest Darrell]

Medal Roll:

[Guest Darrell]

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[Guest Darrell]

Closeup of entry:

[Guest Darrell]

A couple of maps that show his capture location:

1.

[Guest Darrell]

2. Zoomed in a bit:

[Ulsterman]

Very cool! Chris has an us-vs-them group as well as I recall that is very desirable.

[Noor]

Interesting that they used 1:1 British style medal, even idea of naming on the rim, etc looks the same.

Great looking medal, thanks for sharing!!

[Mervyn Mitton]

An interesting post, Darrell. The paperwork always adds so much.

I hope you won't mind if I add a few notes of local colour. Firstly, the British do not allow Countries that have been defeated to have comm. medals. Hence The Boer Republics and also Germany after the 1st WW did not have GSM's for their troops. With Sth. Africa you have to remember that over 50% of the Boers were on the British side - and very many fought against their Countrymen. With the advent of the 1st WW many Afrikaaner (as they had become known) people joined the British Forces and fought bravely. When medals were awarded when peace was declared, many Afrikaaners felt at a disadvantage to their British comrades and Gen. Smuts pushed legislation for the two medals - The Boere Oorlog and the Trouer Dienst. As Darrell has explained only relatively small numbers were issued - either because of death or, a lack of interest. With small numbers they are both valuable and in short supply.

[QSAMIKE]

Hi Darrell......

Great article..... I always thought that the crests were Orange Free State and Transvaal........

I have 3 in my collection, 1 OFS'er and two Tvl'ers......

Boashof Commando

Heidelbur Commando (a Bitter Ender)

and Vryheid Commando

Mike

Edited August 2, 2010 by QSAMIKE

[Chris Boonzaier]

Hi Darrell......

Great article..... I always thought that the crests were Orange Free State and Transvaal........

Mike

Hi Mike,

it is .. more or less... SAR was the Transvaal.

I love these... have not bought any in ages but have 20-30 somewhere stashed.

Here is an Officers group...

http://www.kaiserscross.com/40117/155801.html

Best

Chris

[Guest Darrell]

Hi Darrell......

Great article..... I always thought that the crests were Orange Free State and Transvaal........

I have 3 in my collection, 1 OFS'er and two Tvl'ers......

Boashof Commando

Heidelbur Commando (a Bitter Ender)

and Vryheid Commando

Mike

Thanks Guys.

Interesting as well was the flip flopping of the ribbon depending on which crest you had as your own.

[Strapper]

They look like british medals because they are. The first ones were issued in 1920.

After WW1 the South Africans who fought for the Brits in WW1, but were in the

Boer War against the english, found themselves in the army of the british empire

and on parade with English men who wore Queen South Africa's and KSA.

These chaps fought in the same war but on the boer side, but had no official

medals to show for it. So the union Government of South Africa instituted the ABO

to make former boers in the army feel equal to the british counterparts.

Strangely enough the medals were avaliable in 1941 to the sons and family of Boer

fighters too proud or hateful to take them in 1920. Even stranger is that the present

Government in 1994 ish, issued medals to M'khonto wi sizwe and APLA fighters

who had now joined the SANDF with former white and black adversaries who

had medals fom the Apartheid Government. So now all sides in this unofficial

war can face each other, or stand side by side, wearing medals from the struggle

or border war against terrs. Which ever way you choose to see it.

[Hugh]

Reverse:

Fascinating! Thanks for this. Can you identify which face is which region? Also, can anyone tell me where this fellow was from so that I can display his medal properly? I'm afraid the Vorm B is deeply buried in 50 years of collecting data.

Anglo-Boer War Medal, silver, named to "Korpl J. J. Loggenberg", w/ certificate of award ("Vorm B") dated 28 Mar 1923

Thanks,

Hugh

[Brett Hendey]

Kpl Johannes Jacobus Loggenberg is listed as having served with the General Beyers Commando in the ABO medal roll. According to another source, Gen Beyers began his service as an Assistant Field Cornet in the Boksburg Commando. After the fall of Pretoria he was promoted to Assistant Commandant-General of the Waterberg and Zoutpansberg Commandos and he spent the rest of the war fighting the British in the northern Transvaal.

Brett

PS I forgot to mention that Boksburg etc are in the Transvaal, so Loggenberg wore the medal with the Transvaal (ZAR) arms facing forward, i.e. the side with the lion top left and waggon below.

Edited August 8, 2010 by Brett Hendey

[Hugh]

Kpl Johannes Jacobus Loggenberg is listed as having served with the General Beyers Commando in the ABO medal roll. According to another source, Gen Beyers began his service as an Assistant Field Cornet in the Boksburg Commando. After the fall of Pretoria he was promoted to Assistant Commandant-General of the Waterberg and Zoutpansberg Commandos and he spent the rest of the war fighting the British in the northern Transvaal.

Brett

PS I forgot to mention that Boksburg etc are in the Transvaal, so Loggenberg wore the medal with the Transvaal (ZAR) arms facing forward, i.e. the side with the lion top left and waggon below.

Many thanks, Brett,

I continue to be amazed at the ability of this Forum collectively to answer the most obscure (to me) questions. I'm delighted to have a bit of history on him for my notes. Now I'll have to dig around in my atlas to get a better idea. The closest I've ever been to the Transvaal is Tanzania.

As luck would have it, I have mounted the medal on my display board exactly correctly with respect to both the ribbon and the face showing. That saves me a lot of work on a redo.

Best,

Hugh

[Mervyn Mitton]

Hugh - Brett has given you the information you needed. However, as I was doing some photography, I've added the details from the record and also where the Commando's fought and a little on the General - a fairly unpleasant piece of work, who was violently anti-British.

[Mervyn Mitton]