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Picture courtesy of Morton and Eden

QSA, disc only (Capt: W. Bradford. Rand Rifles.); polished, with various edge bumps and bruises, fair.

Mr Wager Bradford (1862-1909) mine manager and engineer, was born on 9 March 1862 in Stockton, California, U.S.A., the son of Judge Abraham C. Bradford of California and his wife Elizabeth Wager. After a private education he graduated as a Bachelor of Arts (BA) at Hamilton College, Clinton, in the state of New York in 1885, and following a short stint with the New York Daily Sun he began postgraduate courses in mining at the University of California during 1886 and 1887. He subsequently worked as Assayer and Assistant to the Superintendent of the North Star Gold Mining Company in California and as surveyor and dealer in timber and land. From 1889 to 1896 he was in business on his own account, and after marrying Allis K. Ballon in California in 1896 he came to the South African Republic (Transvaal) that same year, having no doubt heard reports (or most likely, having been directly contacted for a position) following major gold discoveries which led to a new ‘gold rush’ in South Africa.

In August 1896 he was settled in Klerksdorp, South Africa, and soon after became manager of Buffelsdoorn Estates and Gold Mining Company and Buffel A. Gold Mining Company. Gaining his Mine Manager’s Certificate in 1897, from that year until his death in 1909 he was manager of The Langlaagte Deep Gold Mining Company Johannesburg, which had been founded in September 1895, and was considered a rich and important gold ‘reef’ in Johannesburg. During this time he was also General Manager of Paarl Central Gold Mining Company in 1898, and served as a Captain with the Rand Rifles during the Boer War, tasked largely with guarding these important gold mines.

In 1899 Bradford was appointed as a member of the Chemical and Metallurgical Society of South Africa, and during 1905-6 and 1906-7 was one of the society’s two vice-presidents. He contributed a paper, ‘Notes on stope box sampling’ to the society’s Journal (Vol. 6, pp. 103-109) in 1905. Bradford was a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers and of the (British) Institution of Mining and Metallurgy. In South Africa he joined the Transvaal Institute of Mechanical Engineers (so named in 1905). In 1906 he became a member of the Geological Society of South Africa, and of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science, as well as President of the Association of Mine Managers of the Transvaal. He died at the age of 47 after a bout of pneumonia on 9 July, 1909, at Johannesburg, South Africa (‘The Biographical Database of South African Science’, refers).

Lookng through the attestation papers for the Rand Rifles in WO126/112-114, it appear that the recruits were either enrolled at different mines or were recruited by specific mines as the stamps of various mines appears at the top of their attestation papers.

Here are some examples:

Village Deep Limited



The Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa Limited



Farrar Anglo French Group

Several of the attestation papers have more than one company name stamped or written on the top of the paper.

H Eckstein & Co / Durban Roodepoort Deep



Consolidated Main Reef Mines & Est Ltd / S Neumnann & Co's Group



H Eckstein & Co / Geldenhuis Deep Ltd

Picture courtesy of Noonan's

QSA (1) Paardeberg (16170 Pte. J. Mc.Bean. Rand Rifles.) suspension claw re-riveted, with replacement retaining rod and clasp, otherwise good very fine

As would be expected to the Rand Rifles, a now clasp medal was issued via WO100/266p11. No evidence of prior service.