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Picture courtesy of Noonan's

QSA (0) (248 Pte. R. Harvey. Namqlnd: T.G.);
O'okiep Medal, bronze issue (R. Harvey) initial corrected on last

The pair to Private Harvey sold at Noonan's this morning for a hammer price of GBP 3,200. Totals: GBP 4,122. R 90,700. AUD 7,570. NZD 8,230. CAD 6,760. USD 5,120. EUR 4,630

Picture courtesy of Noonan's

O'okiep Medal, bronze issue (J O'Niel)

I had a quick look for his QSA but did not locate it.

Sold for a hammer price of GBP 1,500. Totals: GBP 1,932. R 44,900. AUD 3,600. NZD 3,860. CAD 3,190. USD 2,360. EUR 2,170

djb wrote:

Picture courtesy of Noonan's

O'okiep Medal, bronze issue (J O'Niel)

I had a quick look for his QSA but did not locate it.

Sold for a hammer price of GBP 1,500. Totals: GBP 1,932. R 44,900. AUD 3,600. NZD 3,860. CAD 3,190. USD 2,360. EUR 2,170

Hi David

I have one of these medals to a J Fortein - a Coloured fellow - I am under the impression that not all O'Okiep medal recipients were awarded the QSA - this held true especially for the non-European recipients. I am happy to be proved wrong if that is not the case.

Regards

Rory

Rory,

That is probably as the recipients the Copper Co deemed eligible would probably be more inclusive than the medal-awarding authorities.

I have spent a bit of time researching this as six of my Smethwickians served in the 5th Btn RWR and just over 40 of them were involved in the defence of O'Okiep & the copper mine. Unfortunately I was unable to prove any of my Smethwickians were amongst the 40 or so.

Must admit I came to the conclusion that the Directors of the Cape Copper Company deliberately produced the medal to right what they saw as an injustice as shown by this medal roll:



Other pages are even worse as somebody has had a second go at it and written "coloured" against a few of the names followed by "NO MEDAL".

The Cape Copper Company directors made a determined effort to make sure all those they felt deserved the medal received it as this you can see from this press clipping from the Cornish Guardian of 10 March 1905.



You can find the name W Trudgian on the above page of the medal roll. I think an appreciable number of the workers at the mine came from Cornwall for obvious reasons. However, its closest tie to the UK was to Swansea, South Wales. At the time Swansea was known as Copperopolis not because there was copper ore nearby but there was plenty of coal and a very fine harbour. The Cape Copper Company built a copper works in the Ferry Briton area of Swansea and all the ore mined at O'Okiep was shipped to Swansea.

Below is a copper ingot recovered from a sunken ship and you can make out "CCC" on the left hand side identifying the ingot as belonging to the Cape Copper Company.



The ironical discovery I made was that one of my Smethwickians a few years after the Boer War spent a short while in prison for his part in the theft of some copper ingots - I wonder if they had "CCC" on them and I would have loved to prove that a man who had once defended copper was later guilty of stealing it.

I believe the O'Okiep medal was not awarded to the relevant members of the RWR. The British papers of the day never included the apostrophe and today I believe it is called Okiep.

Personally I think present day medal collectors should call it the Cape Copper Company Medal as it was awarded by the company and not the town.

Finally a couple of postcards which appear to have been produced just after the Boer War. One of the mine and the other of the nearby port to which the ore was sent via rail before being shipped to Swansea.