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I am not familiar with Boer history I’m afraid Mike.

Definitely something to look at.

Thanks,

Jim

Well done on securing the Steinaecker's Horse trio, Jim.

There's one more item of possible auction interest this year, the Boer War VC and DSO miniature group ?

Hi David,
Thanks for the ‘heads up’ on the miniature group, quite impressive. I’ll leave it for the miniature collectors though.
There are a couple of medals on the Bay I am looking at.

Jim

Jim asks "How these fellows were not shot as traitors when captured is a mystery to me."
Well, it wasn't due to magnanimity, it was because they were burghers (citizens) of the Boer republics, and were no longer subjects of the Queen - if they ever had been. For example, at Spioenkop, quite a few burghers who died had British names, such as FLANAGAN, SMITH, LEWIS, MILLS, REID etc.
By contrast, many Afrikaners who were subjects of the Queen in the Cape (and less so in Natal), who took up arms for the Boers, were indeed executed.

Does anyone have a copy of City Coins Catalogue #32 from 1997?

I've made some assumptions but I'm thinking the medal collection of Bertram Cairncross (1899-1992) was sold here, other than the remarkable collection of Cairncross medals he amassed and donated to Castle of Good Hope museum in Cape Town. In that catalogue I think a write up of him was done and I'd really like to get my hands on a copy of that. He did a great job of pulling all the Cairncross family medals together and even getting relatives to apply for those such as the ABO - 7 Cairncross were in British units and 7 were in Boer units. In catalogue #72 I was delighted to pick up the QSA to an eighth Cairncross who was with the railways and part of the family - so "one that got way" from his collection - in addition I have a family connection to Cairncross.

Jon,

I have a copy of #45 from 19 Dec 1997 containing medals from the collections of Bill Hibbard, Frank Mitchell and Bertram Cairncross.

In the Preface, Rob Mitchell provides a paragraph on Bertram and that he was a respected naturalist, collector and military historian. The catalogue contains a longer write-up on Bill but no more on Bertram.

Best wishes
David