TOPIC:

Hi
Bert Webber was an original member of Rimington's Guides, having enlisted on 26 October 1899. However, as was customary, his QSA is named to Damant's Horse.



I bought the medal in August 1980 and soon afterwards found out that he was killed at Groenfontein on 25 November 1900.Over the years I unsuccessfully tried to find out where this particular Groenfontein was and in what incident he was killed. When Steve Watt published "In Memoriam" I thought I would at least find out where he was buried, but it turned out that he has no known grave.
A little while ago I realised I had never looked in "With Rimington" by L March Phillips. Within 20 minutes I had my answer on page 207.



There were two farms named "Groenfontein" in the Frankfort District, adjoining the Vaal River. Chances are that Webber's unmarked grave is now under the waters of the Vaal Dam
Henk

Henk
Thank you for posting that wonderful medal, and for the story of the 'man behind the medal'. It shows that researching such men is a process that never ends.
Regards
Brett

Just superb and rare, the thing I always liked about Rimington's lads, apart from their initial "hand picked" status, was simply that they were raised before the other SAMIF regiments that served on the Western front with such distinction, for example, both Roberts and Kitchener's Horse, whilst raised in Cape Town, in a similar way to Rimington's, but, it was several weeks later, well into the new year of 1900.

Henk Loots wrote: Hi
Bert Webber was an original member of Rimington's Guides, having enlisted on 26 October 1899. However, as was customary, his QSA is named to Damant's Horse.

I bought the medal in August 1980 and soon afterwards found out that he was killed at Groenfontein on 25 November 1900.Over the years I unsuccessfully tried to find out where this particular Groenfontein was and in what incident he was killed. When Steve Watt published "In Memoriam" I thought I would at least find out where he was buried, but it turned out that he has no known grave.
A little while ago I realised I had never looked in "With Rimington" by L March Phillips. Within 20 minutes I had my answer on page 207.

There were two farms named "Groenfontein" in the Frankfort District, adjoining the Vaal River. Chances are that Webber's unmarked grave is now under the waters of the Vaal Dam
Henk

Hi Frank
Rimington's Tigers : my favourite Boer War unit on the British Side.
Webber's name is commemorated on the Boer War memorial in Grahamstown.
Henk

Henk
Is it impertinent to ask which is your favourite unit on the Boer side?
Regards
Brett

PS My favourite unit of the Boer side is the Heidelberg Commando, because it is the one linked to my two best Boer research projects, and because it was so well documented by Ian Uys.

Hi Brett
On the Boer side it is the TVK (Theron Verkenner Korps: Theron's Scouting Corps) and its offshoot after Theron was killed, Jack Hindon's Scouting Corps. The latter was commanded towards the end of the war by Capt Henri Slegtkamp (see my Avatar).
Henk