A Collection of Medals relating to the Boer War formed by two brothers

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 2 clasps, Cape Colony, South Africa 1902 (159 Tpr. H. A. van der Linde, Western L.H.) edge bruise, nearly very fine, rare unit £160-200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals relating to the Boer War formed by two brothers.

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Hercules Albertus Van der Linde, a Boer farmer, enlisted in the Western Light Horse at Vryburg on 1 May 1902, aged 19 years, stating that he had earlier served for three months in Cullinan’s Horse. In all probability, therefore, he was present with 64 other men from that unit when it had the ill-fortune to comprise part of Major Paris’ column, under Lord Methuen, when the General was defeated, wounded and captured by De La Rey at Tweebosch on 7 March 1902 - four of its men were killed and four wounded.

Cullinan's Horse was a small unit that was part British, part surrendered Boer. The Western Light Horse was formed in April 1902 by Major Paris, on Lord Kitchener's orders, by bringing together Scott's Railway Guards, Cullinan's Horse, the Cape Police Specials, Hannay's Scouts and Dennison's Scouts. Major Dennison of Dennison's Scouts became its second-in-command. Its formation, soon after De La Rey's defeat and capture of Lord Methuen, was the result of discussions at Army H.Q. in Pretoria as to how best to use the units that were based in the Vryburg area. Initially, it had been proposed that Dennison would raise a new unit, as he related in his autobiography, A Fight to a Finish: ‘General Hamilton wrote me that it was the wish of the Commander-in-Chief that I should raise the nucleus of a corps by enrolling fifty Britishers and augmenting them from time with such of the surrendered rebels who preferred five shillings a day to a scanty subsistence ... I now had positive instructions verified officially a few days later, and in a very short time had over a hundred men enrolled, consisting of fifty Britishers, principally South Africans, and the balance of the class I was instructed to enrol, viz. surrendered rebels, whom I would much rather have met in the field as enemies than have their service; but these were my orders and I carried them out.’ Elsewhere, Dennison remarked that ‘great bitterness, of course, existed among the Boers against this class’. In the event, ‘the life of the corps was a short one, for peace soon followed, and, excepting a bit of a skirmish outside the town, practically the last of the war down west, the Western Light Horse saw no service in the field’ (A Fight to a Finish refers). It was disbanded a week after peace.

Few of the Boers that fought with the British forces bothered to collect their medals after the end of the war. Often ostracised by their fellow Afrikaners, many preferred to forget that they had forsaken their brethren and sworn an oath of allegiance to the King. Few Queen’s South Africa Medals to Cullinan's Horse are recorded and few to the Western Light Horse, not only on account of the number of Boers that enlisted but also because the majority of Britishers had seen service with previous units (such as Scott's Railway Guards and the Cape Police Specials) and their medals were issued off the rolls of those units.

With copied attestation paper, roll extracts and other research.