TOPIC:

Input is solicited from the learned members here. I recently acquired what was termed a Family grouping of medals to the surname Erasmus. On this occasion Noonan's had employed poetic licence as, after the most rudimentary check, it was soon discovered that they were not family at all...

Nevertheless, one of the medals was an ABO to Burger Cornelius (Cornelis) Martinus Erasmus - there are three such on the rolls but, fortuitously, only one had the Type 3 naming - this then helped Dewald Nel and I to determine that my medal was to the CM Erasmus who claimed his medal in 1941.



Now for the mystery... as you can see - the cover sheet for his ABO file states that he was in the Bethlehem Cdo - it is here where I think the clerks missed a trick - have a close look at the Vorm B where he states which commando he served in - to my mind this looks more like the Bethal Commando which makes more sense if you look further right and see who he served under.



The clincher is his POW report - he was clearly from the Ermelo area (close to Bethal) - more so than Bethlehem which is in the OFS. What say members? Am I correct and the clerks, all those years ago, wrong?



Regards

Rory

Hi Rory,

In short; yes I would completely agree, it looks like a clerical error from all those years ago.

I remember this lot; the last time it came to market was back in May 2024 (Spinks); lot 455.

At the time it was also described as a family lot and at the time & out of curiosity did some research and I couldn't find the family connection either.

However, when it sold last week I did think that whoever bought the lot did get a good deal as it's worth more than the sum of it's parts. I'm not suggesting splitting the lots; I'm just saying that there is a lot of rich history in that lot and possibly a few good surprises install for you.

All in all...a good buy.

Regards,
Shaun

Thanks Shaun

This is clearly a case where a collection of medals to the Erasmus name have been misconstrued as a family grouping.

Having established that there is no consanguineous link, I have no qualms in splitting them up.

Regards

Rory

Rory/Shaun, Bethal seems the correct commando for this C.M. Erasmus. As Rory observed both H.S. Grobler, his commanding officer, and P.J.D. Erasmus his Veldkornet are from that unit. Mooivlei (Mooivley 56) is located in the Ermelo District about 40 km NE of the town of Bethal. FYI there is a farm Mooifontein just north of Bethal town which was also owned by a member of the Erasmus clan. Perhaps not a smoking gun, but family members quite often used similar descriptions in naming farms and direct family connections could explain why he joined the Bethal commando rather than that of Ermelo.

Postscript: There is only one C.M. Erasmus on the Forsyth roll. Cornelius Martienus Erasmus of the Bethal Commando (Note the "ie"in Martienus the same way as he wrote on form B )