TOPIC:

EFV wrote: As such it is just as likely that this bullet was just a stray picked up by a local kid and sold to one of the Victorian damsels that crowded the town after the siege, than as an object that was removed from uncle Charly’s buttocks.

Everhard,

I think the second scenario in your last post is the more likely.

After the discovery of diamonds in the Kimberley area in 1866, the town attracted a multitude of jewellers, small workshops springing up in almost every street. It is well documented that during and after the siege many of these artisans collected and mounted shell fragments and bullets, making them into brooches and pendants. These were sold to both soldiers and to the hordes of battlefield tourists who started to descend on the town the moment the siege was lifted. Due to the plethora of jewellery shops, mementoes of the siege of Kimberley are considerably more plentiful than those from other theatres of the war. The Kimberley silversmiths also made pieces commemorating other major engagements on the western front, such as Paardeberg and Magersfontein.


Below are a few short articles that were printed in the British press. Most focus on the mounting of shell fragments, but extant examples show that bullets were equally popular as mementoes.

Western Times, 6th April 1900

“The jewellers are coining money by making brooches out of the copper driving bands which they take off the shells which have been fired into the town. They are inscribed “Siege of Kimberley, 1899-1900”. They are sold at 12s 6d each, the odd 12s being the price of the brooch as a relic. The 6d about covers its value” (Gunner W.F.C. Pugsley, 38th Battery R.F.A.).


South Yorkshire Times and Mexborough & Swinton Times, 6th April 1900

LETTER FROM A MEXBRO’ SOLDIER.
The following letter has been received by Mr Charles Rudderham, Schofield Street, Mexborough, from his brother who is fighting in South Africa:
Military Camp, Kimberley, 24/2/1900.
……. Tell Annie I will send her a brooch made of a piece of Boer shell fired into Kimberley, with the engraving “Kimberley Siege, 1899-1900” on it as a curio of the Boer War, 1899-1900.
F. RUDDERHAM (5684 Lance-Corporal John Frederick RUDDERHAM, 2nd Bn. King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry).


Liverpool Weekly Courier, 7th April 1900

I was privileged the other evening to hear a gentleman relating his experiences and vicissitudes during the siege of Kimberley, and I envied him the open-mouthed wonder he evoked from his audience, who followed his every word intently…..
Among the relics he showed of the memorable siege were half-a-dozen Mauser cartidges, a few spent bullets, and a portion of a Boer shell made into a little medallion in the form of a heart and inscribed “Kimberley Siege, 1899-1900. Boer shell”.


Warwick Argus (Queensland), 10th April 1900

A SOUVENIR OF KIMBERLEY. Mrs. J. Ryan, wife of Sergeant-major Ryan, of Toowoomba, a member of the First Queensland Contingent, is in receipt of an interesting memento of the Siege of Kimberley in the shape of a brooch made from a piece of one of the Boer shells. It was fired into the town. Sergeant Ryan had it converted into a brooch at Kimberley, and it bears the inscription, "Siege of Kimberley." It is of copper. Pieces of the shells are selling at £3 in Kimberley.


London Daily News, 12th April 1900

SIEGE RELICS.
The jewellers here are doing a thriving trade in “siege relics”. The most popular form which these take is that of the square-shape “bullets”, or disintegrated segments from the interior of the ordinary ring-shell. These are polished on one side, and the words “Siege of Kimberley, 1899-1900” engraved thereon. They are then fitted with a ring, so that they can be fastened to a watch-chain, and thus fashioned they are in great demand. In fact, in one case, at least, I hear of an establishment where they are being sliced into two or three pieces, and each piece utilised separately, in order to keep up the supply. Larger pieces of shall are made into paper-weights and other ornaments. High prices are paid for whole shells, especially 100-pounders, and “pom-poms”.


Morning Leader, 16th April 1900

Quantities of relics are on view and sale in Kimberley. Unexploded shells with marks of rifling on the driving bands are always pleasant to behold; they tell that the deadly explosive has not done the worst that was expected of it. And there are smaller curios – brooches, bangle charms of bullets and shrapnel shot, and pretty little padlocks for bracelets made of segments of ring shell. The jewellers must have had a busy time during the siege hunting for the fragments from which they have made such unique ornaments.


Auckland Star (New Zealand), 24th May 1900

Trooper Franklin, now a prisoner at Pretoria, sent to a Wanganui lady a very interesting souvenir of the siege of Kimberley. The trophy consisted of a brooch, the pendant of iron and the bar of copper made from fragments of a shell fired by the Boers into Kimberley.


Aberdeen Press and Journal, 15th May 1901

Among the curios brought home by some of the volunteers were Mauser bullets made into brooches, while some used them as safety pins for their kilts. These, one volunteer stated, were all made by the men on the voyage home.



This extract from a letter published in The South African Military History Society, Military History Journal, Vol. 3 No 4 - December 1975, shows that these souvenirs were being produced as early as a few weeks into the siege.

Mrs Winifred Heberden wrote on 23/11/1899: “Have had a 'Siege Trophy' given to me in the shape of a brooch. It is made of the copper binding of a shell thrown into Kenilworth. From this is suspended one of the iron 'chocolate drop' shaped pieces from the inside of the shell - this particular piece having killed the horse of a Sergeant in the Cape Police”.








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Following on from Neville's exposé about the industry that sprang up after the sieges. Jewellers jumping on the ABW spent-ordnance bandwagon did not just use actual bullets and shrapnel. Below a few examples of bullets that found their mark in a different way, as brooch or as a handsome set of cufflinks. Up to a decade ago, these pieces, shunned by the coin collectors who fold their socks before descending into the matrimonial bedstead with a missus in floral nightdress, curlers and cucumber eye masks, could be picked up for close to scrap value.