Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Natal 1906, no clasp (Tpr: S. Atkinson, Umvoti Mtd. Rifles.) contact marks, very fine £60-£80

In February 1906, in response to the Zulu rebellion against a poll tax introduced by the Natal Government the previous year, elements of the Umvoti Mounted Rifles were mobilised for active service, and marched to Maphumulo, there to rendezvous with two other units of the Natal Militia, the Natal Mounted Rifles and Durban Light Infantry. This force came to be known officially as the Umvoti Field Force, and popularly as the Leuchars Field Force.

The Umvoti Mounted Rifles, which had been relegated to subsidiary roles in the Anglo-Zulu and the Anglo-Boer Wars, saw more extensive action in 1906, with deployment marked by the widespread 'drives' characteristic of colonial operations, as well as a roving defence of the strategic drifts over the Thukela separating Natal and Zululand.