Sth.Africa - Gold & Silver Bravery Awards

[Mervyn Mitton]

With the slight problem we are having on adding to posts I have made these two awards as a separate

one from the previous Gold Award with neckband - the highest.

The Gold Award and the Silver Award ranked as numbers two and three for the South African Police.

The original awards dated from 1963 - however, these smaller versions came into use in 1989 and were

taken out of service in 1994 when the Government changed.

Only 5 of the Gold ones were presented - one of them postumously. I don't know how many silver were awarded - perhaps a member will be able to help ?

These are original - probably both in precious metal - however, they were not used for presentation, so,

have no identification number.

To have the pair together makes them very rare.

http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_06_2012/post-6209-0-40374300-1339509134.jpgCLICK TO ENLARGE

[Mervyn Mitton]

GOLD - front and back

http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_06_2012/post-6209-0-05529700-1339509314.jpgCLICK TO ENLARGE

[Mervyn Mitton]

http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_06_2012/post-6209-0-31968300-1339509660.jpgCLICK TO ENLARGE

[Mervyn Mitton]

SILVER - front and rear

http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_06_2012/post-6209-0-14630000-1339509822.jpgCLICK TO ENLARGE

[Mervyn Mitton]

http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_06_2012/post-6209-0-86993800-1339510101.jpgCLICK TO ENLARGE

[Mervyn Mitton]

This shows all three SAP Awards for bravery together. The one with neckband is the original 1963 size.

http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_06_2012/post-6209-0-29747700-1339768813.jpgCLICK TO ENLARGE

[Arthur R]

Very nice, Mervyn - the neck badge and the chest decorations look good together. There was also a third class chest version, in "lower grade silver", with three white stripes each side of the gold stripe on the ribbon. I don't have complete figures, but from annual reports up to the end of 1993, the three classes of the 1989 (chest) version had been awarded as follows:

~ Gold (for outstanding bravery in extremely dangerous circumstances) : 4

~ Silver (for exceptional bravery in very dangerous circumstances) : 9

~ Lower-grade silver (for bravery in dangerous circumstances) : 57.

A total of 70 awards in the space of four years -- but they were not peaceful years in SA, which no doubt helps to account for this high total.

[Mervyn Mitton]

Arthur - thankyou for those interesting numbers. I am actually surprised that they were handed out so sparingly - as you

say, they were troubled years and the Police were in the thick of the problems.

Your help and input is always appreciated. Mervyn