Special Collections

Sold on 26 July 2023

1 part

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A Fine Collection of Boer War Medals to Medical Services, the Church and the Press

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Lot

№ 291

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26 July 2023

Hammer Price:
£1,100

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, no clasp (Sister Raphael) officially impressed naming, minor edge bruises, otherwise good very fine £300-£400

M.I.D. London Gazette 16 April 1901 (Lord Roberts’ despatch).

Sister Raphael is confirmed on the roll of the Roman Catholic Convent, Bloemfontein.

Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange Free State, was captured by Lord Roberts on 13 March 1900. Occupied by his force of some 36,000, and without any proper sanitary provisions, it soon became engulfed by a raging typhoid epidemic. By mid-April there were 2000 men in hospital and the dead and dying overwhelmed Roberts’ inadequate medical arrangements, so much so that an urgent request for an extra 30 Doctors and 300 Orderlies was sent to London. The Mother Superior and Sisters of the Roman Catholic Convent (16 in total) and the Nursing Staff of St Michael’s Home (12 in total), at Bloemfontein, provided much needed beds and assistance during the epidemic.

Sold with copied gazette notice and medal roll.