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Dave F wrote: I did find 2 entries for Micheal Regan who both died in South Africa in 1903 and 1913. I cannot access the records as they are in the N A of Pretoria. The ref numbers are 3571 and 40135.

FWIW, the death notices of these two Michael Reagans are available on Family Search.
The first (ref 3571) was born in Launceston, Tasmania, in 1861 or 62, and died in Johannesburg in 1903. His occupation was given as "mason".
The second (ref 40135) was born in Ireland in 1857, and died in Pretoria in 1919. His occupation was "secretary to association".

From the City Coins auction, 4 November 2022

QSA (3) Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal (25357 Tpr: R. Rafferty. Kitchener’s Horse._

QSA verified on WO100/256p58. SA01 on WO100/256p106

Spink did not cover themselves in glory with this listing


Picture courtesy of Spink

Described as: 'Queen's South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Relief of Ladysmith, Paardeberg, Driefontein (3101 Tpr: F. Korch. Kitchener's Horse); King's South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (804 Corpl: F. Korck. C. T. Highrs:); Mayor of Kimberley’s Star 1899-1900, unnamed as issued, reverse hallmark with date letter ‘a’, note surname spelling on first, last with ring suspension, very fine (3). Frederick Korck transferred to the Cape Town Highlanders after having served in Kitchener's Horse.'

He earned Relief of Kimberley, not the Relief of Ladysmith.

He did not earn the Kimberley Star.

Picture courtesy of Noonan's

QSA (4) Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1901 (9752 Sgt. R. Shaw. Kitchener’s Horse) rank officially corrected

The roll states Medal recovered from SA and re-issued 12 February 1906.

State clasps on WO100/256p74. SA01 on WO100/256p107.

A fantasy medal from the next Noble Numismatics sale but not identified as such.


Picture courtesy of Noble Numismatics

QSA (6) Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Johannesburg, Paardeberg, Transvaal, Wepener (4502 Tpr: S.Fowler. Kitchener's Horse.) Impressed. Toned, a few small dark spots, otherwise very fine.

Described as:

Ex Dr John M. Bennett AM Collection.^^Trooper Sydney John Fowler, Kitchener's Horse; Enl.16Apr1900; Disch.12Dec1900 Medically Unfit.


WO100/256p34 shows entitlement to CC, OFS and Johannesburg only.



His attestation paper shows no prior service before he joined Kitchener's Horse on 4 April 1900, although the enlistment section was not fully completed.

He was discharged 12 December 1900.

Picture courtesy of Noonan's

QSA (5) Cape Colony, Paardeberg, Driefontein, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill (Capt: R. Burns-Begg, Kitchener’s Horse.);
KSA (2) (Capt: R. Burns-Begg, S.A.M.I.F.);
British War Medal 1914-20 (Col. R. Burns-Begg.)

Robert Burns-Begg was born in Kinross in March 1872, and educated at Stranraer School, Bournemouth and Edinburgh University. He served as a Second Lieutenant and Instructor of Musketry with the 7th Clackmannanshire & Kinross Volunteer Battalion, Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders from 1892. Burns Begg advanced to lieutenant in December 1893, and resigned his commission in November 1895. He travelled to Africa, and was appointed advocate and counsel to the Transvaal Government. Burns-Begg was commissioned lieutenant in the Cape Town Highlanders, and was employed as an intelligence officer and staff captain from March 1901. He advanced to captain in the South African Mounted Irregular Force from September 1901, and was intelligence officer to the Military Governor of Pretoria.

Burns-Begg was employed as prosecuting counsel in the Floris Visser murder trial of “Breaker” Morant, and others of the Bushveldt Carbineers, 17 January 1902. Harry Morant, was an Anglo-Australian officer in the Bushveldt Carbineers, who was convicted and executed for murdering six Boer prisoners-of-war and three captured civilians in two separate incidents during the Second Boer War. The case, and subsequent execution received a lot of press coverage and debate in Australia. A number of books have been written about Morant, and Kenneth Ross wrote a critically acclaimed play Breaker Morant: A Play in Two Acts which in 1980 was turned into a successful movie called Breaker Morant.

Burns-Begg’s legal capabilities in the courtroom are recorded in Shoot Straight you Bastards by N. Bleszynski. He was recalled to England before the close of the trial, but not before he had destroyed the case of the defence. Burns-Begg was also the principal witness in the committal proceedings at Bow Street Court for Treason of “Colonel” Arthur Lynch, M.P., 1 August 1902. Lynch (an Irish Australian, who was MP for Galway Borough and fought for the Boers during the Second Boer War) was subsequently found guilty at trial, 24 January 1903, and sentenced to death (later commuted to life imprisonment, and ultimately pardoned). The following is given about his varied career in The Scots Law Times, 11 March 1911:

‘Colonel Burns-Begg’s remarkable career has not yet solved the problem, which is the mightier weapon - the sword, the pen, or the baton? Since a wise institution told him that the development of his peculiar talents required a wider field than that afforded by the floor of the Parliament House, his returns thither at meteoric intervals, now as a soldier, now as a lawyer, now as an administrator, have left his friends in a state of bewildered admiration. His first military appointment, as galloper one manoeuvres to Brigadier General Sir J. H. A. Macdonald, was prophetic of a protean career. At the Speculative Society he was known as a master of picturesque and forcible English, and of an embarrassing capacity for the conduct of private business.

Colonel Burns-Begg is now in his thirty-ninth year. After practising as an advocate for a little over two years he left Edinburgh for South Africa, and was called to the bar of Southern Rhodesia in 1898. The outbreak of the war gave pause, for the moment, to his legal career, and Lieut. Burns-Begg, with a commission in the Cape Colonial Forces, assisted Col. Legge and Major Congreve to raise Kitchener’s Horse in 1900. During the same year he was successively attached to the Maxim Gun Detachment R.F. and R.H.A. and to the staff of the Second Mounted Infantry Corps, in which services he took part in the marches to Bloemfontein and to Pretoria, and in the actions at Paardeberg, Driefontein, Johannesburg, and Diamond Hill. Through the remainder of the war he acted as Intelligence Officer on the Staff at Pretoria. He returned home with the rank of captain in March 1902, and during the year which followed held an appointment on the Headquarters Intelligence Staff of the War Office…..

Returning to South Africa, he was appointed Legal Adviser to the Transvaal Government, and for five years succeeded in running his two professions in double harness, being made King’s Counsel in 1906 and rising to the rank of Lieut.-Colonel in command of the Northern Mounted Rifles. In 1908 he became Commissioner of the Transvaal Police, and retained that office until the autumn of last year [1910], when he resigned, owing to altered conditions brought about by the reconstitution of the Government of South Africa. After a visit to this country of less than six months, he is now about to take up the duties of Resident Commissioner and Commandant General of the Volunteer and Police Forces of Southern and Northern Rhodesia [1911-15], appointments which carry, ex officio, seats on the Legislative and Administrative Councils of these colonies…..’

Burns-Begg was appointed temporary colonel and commandant lines of communication, Folkestone 1915. The latter town being a vital link in the war effort, with some ten million troops and medical staff passing through the port to and from the front. Colonel Burns-Begg returned to Edinburgh on sick leave, and died of pneumonia, 9 January 1918. He is buried in the Kinross Cemetery, commemorated on the Sutton War Memorial, at Kinross Parish Church and on the Edinburgh University Faculty War Memorial.

Sold for a hammer price of GBP 5,000. Total GBP 6,440. R 137,860. AUD 11,290. NZD 12,160. CAD 10,300. USD 7,490. EUR 7,060.