South Africa General Service Medal: CM.1437-2009

Maker(s)

Mint: London
Artist: Wyon, Leonard Charles
Artist: Wyon, William
Ruler: Victoria (1837-1901)
Ruler: Victoria regina (With the title of)

Entities

• South Africa General Service Medal
• Medals
• Military
• Britain
• British Army

Categories

• Medal

Description

The history of the British presence in South Africa is inextricably bound up with that of the Basuto and Zulu tribes whom it displaced. A series of shaky and short-lived accommodations with the various polities that made up the African kingdoms meant that the borders between the zones were never entirely free from conflict. Between 1877 and 1879 a number of particularly difficult punitive expeditions were mounted by the British authorities, and in 1880 a medal was sanctioned for these that was a new issue of that for the campaigns of 1834-1853 with a slightly modified reverse design.
Particularly demanding were the attacks of the Galeka and Gaika tribes on a protected people, the Fingos. The campaigns against the insurgent peoples lasted some eight months and involved, as well as extensive local forces, contingents of both the British Army and the Royal Navy serving ashore. The war ended in the annexation of the Transkei, home of the Galeka peoples, to the Cape Colony.
This medal was awarded to Sergeant Major R. B. Keys of the Cape Field Artillery (Prince Alfred's Own Volunteer Artillery), the heavy support of the local forces involved in this campaign, which became known as the Ninth Kaffir War. Lester Watson acquired his medal at some point before 1928.

Notes

History note: Gift of L. Hoyt Watson; ex Lester Watson Collection, acquired before 1928

Legal notes

Given by Lester Watson through Cambridge in America, 2009

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (2009) by Watson, Lester

Dating

1880 - 1881