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My interest in this website stems from my grandfather’s service with 2nd Battalion KSLI in the second Boer War. Before my father passed in 2017 he documented some of the stories related to him by his father. One of them was about Australian cattle wranglers who used to round up cattle that were roaming around after being released from Boer farms. They apparently used to take the cattle to collection points and received tokens for them that could be redeemed for money from the British authorities. I haven’t been able to find out anything about these Aussie cowboys anywhere and wondered if anyone had any relevant information. I am also posting a photo of a 2KSLI group outside a block house in case it is of interest to anyone. My grandfather is in the back row with his head missing.

Stephen2565
Welcome to the Forum. There was no Australian (Colonial or Commonwealth) unit of that title. There was, however, the "Corps of Cattle Rangers"; who were tasked with the rounding up of cattle etc. They were recruited locally in SA and doubtless had some Australians as members.
QSAs to that particular unit are very scarce and some time ago I did a post on one such CofCR medal in my collection and described its activities to a certain extent.
It is a pity your pic of your GF is mutilated.
Regards
IL.
.

That makes sense. According to the information that I have my GF came across the Aussies at least twice, once on a farm when they were searching for gold that may have been hidden by the farmers and the second time in the hospital when he was admitted with enteric fever and the guy the next bed was an Aussie who wanted to buy cigarettes off him with gold coins that he had concealed in his belt. He also mentioned that he was aware of them releasing the cattle from the collection point after delivery so they could round them up again and get paid twice!!

LinneyI wrote: Stephen2565
Welcome to the Forum. There was no Australian (Colonial or Commonwealth) unit of that title. There was, however, the "Corps of Cattle Rangers"; who were tasked with the rounding up of cattle etc. They were recruited locally in SA and doubtless had some Australians as members.
QSAs to that particular unit are very scarce and some time ago I did a post on one such CofCR medal in my collection and described its activities to a certain extent.
It is a pity your pic of your GF is mutilated.
Regards
IL.
IL.

I saw the posts on another thread which included two cards for Aussie members and you mentioned that there was a number of Aussies enrolled in the Corps of Cattle Rangers so it is quite possible that GF came across a few of them in his time in SA.

LinneyI wrote: Stephen2565
Welcome to the Forum. There was no Australian (Colonial or Commonwealth) unit of that title. There was, however, the "Corps of Cattle Rangers"; who were tasked with the rounding up of cattle etc. They were recruited locally in SA and doubtless had some Australians as members.
QSAs to that particular unit are very scarce and some time ago I did a post on one such CofCR medal in my collection and described its activities to a certain extent.
It is a pity your pic of your GF is mutilated.
Regards
IL.
.

I found the below letter in a NZ newspaper which refers to an Australian section in the CCR as well as the fees that they were paid which is quite interesting

Hi Stephen,
I was able to find the following article which talks about some interesting facts about the Corps of Cattle Rangers.



Trev