King’s South Africa Medal

 

The Second Boer War 1899-1902.

 

Further relevant historical context can be found at the foot of this entry.

 

 

The King's South Africa Medal was a British Empire campaign medal presented for service during the Second Boer War. The medal was instituted in 1902 and was awarded only to those troops who fought in 1902, and who had served for at least 18 months.

 

Service did not have to be continuous, but even with continuous service, the recipient needed to have served from December 1900 to have 18 months service before the war ended in May 1902 (and commencing before the death of Queen Victoria on 22 January 1901).

 

Hence the majority of participants qualified for the Queen's South Africa Medal only.

 

The medal was not issued alone but always with the Queen's South Africa Medal and was never issued without a bar - the only exception to this being to approximately 600 nursing sisters.

 

 

The medal is circular, 36mm in diameter and was struck in silver. The obverse of this medal bears the head of King Edward VII and the inscription; 'EDWARDVS VII REX IMPERATOR'.

 

The reverse depicts Britannia facing right with her right hand stretched out holding a wreath. Behind her is a shield bearing the Union Flag and in the background can be seen both the ships of the Royal Navy and soldiers marching to battle while above is the inscription; 'SOUTH AFRICA'.

 

The ribbon suspender is of the plain, straight and swivelling style riveted to the medal.

 

The recipient's details can be found on the medal's rim. However, as with the Queen's medal, the naming varies including both engraved and impressed capital letters.

 

 

 

The ribbon is 32mm wide and is light green, white and orange in colour.

 

 

This medal was issued with the following clasps:-

 

 

NB: The medal generally has the two clasps listed above but some very rare issues had only the 'SOUTH AFRICA 1902' clasp (although regulations stated it must have both) while others to nursing sisters had none.

 

Further relevant historical context can be found at the foot of this entry.

 

 

 

* It should be noted that the values quoted above reflect the average price that a medal dealer may expect to sell this medal for - please see the ‘things you should know’ web page for more details about valuing medals.

 

** The individual medal value will vary considerably based on the recipient’s details.

 

 

This section contains information on:-

 

- The Second Boer War.

 

The Second Boer War - The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic (Transvaal Republic) and the Orange Free State.

 

It ended with a British victory and the annexation of both republics by the British Empire; both would eventually be incorporated into the Union of South Africa, a dominion of the British Empire, in 1910.

 

The conflict is commonly referred to as The Boer War but is also known as the South African War outside South Africa, the Anglo-Boer War among most South Africans, and in Afrikaans as the Anglo-Boereoorlog or Tweede Vryheidsoorlog (Second War of Liberation or Second Freedom War) or the Engelse oorlog (English War).

 

The Second Boer War and the earlier, much less well known, First Boer War (December 1880 to March 1881) are collectively known as the Boer Wars.

 

This information was taken from ‘Wikipedia’. The original article and details of the authors can be found here. It is reproduced on this web-site under the ‘creative commons’ licence which can be found here.