A Choice Collection of Medals and Other Items Relating to The Defence of Kimberley

Five: Major E. C. J. Brand, an Inspector in the Cape Police and onetime Captain in the Diamond Fields Horse, who later served as Conductor in the S.A.S.C. during the Great War: he was taken prisoner by the Boers during the siege of Kimberley

Cape of Good Hope General Service 1880-97, 1 clasp, Bechuanaland (Capt. E. C. J. Brand, Dmd. Fds. Hse.); Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 1 clasp, Defence of Kimberley (Sub-Insptr. E. C. J. Brand, Spl. C.P.); British War and bi-lingual Victory Medals (Condr. E. C. J. Brand, S.A.S.C.); Mayor of Kimberley’s Star 1899-1900, reverse hallmark with a letter ‘a’, complete with suspension brooch, inscribed ‘Siege of Kimberley’, nearly extremely fine (5) £700-900

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Choice Collection of Medals and Other Items Relating to The Defence of Kimberley.

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The following career summary was published in Men of The Times:
‘Major Edward Christoffel Joseph Brand, who has proved a most able second to Mr. Izdibski in the Transvaal C.I.D., is a son of the late C. H. Brand - one time clerk-assistant to the House of Assembly, Cape Town - and a nephew of the late Sir John Brand, the most popular President the ex-Free State ever knew. He was born in London in 1863 and received his education at the Marist Brothers’ School, Cape Town, and the Rev. Mr. Wright’s School, Kimberley.

In 1877 he entered the Civil Service at the latter place, but left such employment three years later to associate himself with mining propositions in the Bulfontein and Du Toits Pan districts. He again changed his service in 1888, when he joined the Diamond Detective Department at Kimberley, and from January 1895 till February 1899 he was also a remunerated Captain and Adjutant of the Diamond Fields Horse, Colonial Volunteers Force. In this latter capacity he participated in the Bechuanaland campaign of 1896-97, which at the finish saw him Captain, commanding a detachment of the Griqualand West Brigade. He retained his dual position with the special sanction of the Colonial Government, and was both Adjutant and Sub-Inspector of Police throughout the siege of Kimberley. He was invalided from the capital of the diamond fields just before the relief, but was captured by the Boers, refused parole and held in hostage at both Bloemfontein and Pretoria, being eventually released at Waterval in June 1900. Major Brand was appointed Inspector of the C.I.D. at Johannesburg in March 1901, being simultaneously transferred to from the Cape Service.’

Brand subsequently volunteered for active service in 1916, aged 52 years, and was enrolled in the Transport and Remounts Service, South African Service Corps, in which capacity he served in British East Africa as a Conductor. He was demobilised back in South Africa in February 1917, most probably as a result of malaria, which illness had resulted in his hospitalisation at Karogue in the previous August; sold with research and medal roll confirmation.