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Hi everybody

Another medal to a National Scout : this time a self-awarded ABO

No 519 Tpr C R O Dippenaar (spelt Duppenaar on QSA roll) served in No 2 Wing, National Scouts. He never claimed his QSA and it was returned to Woolwich in 1909.

At some stage Christiaan Rudolf Opperman Dippenaar obtained an ABO medal that was legitimately awarded to one of the 6 Burgers with surname Dippenaar. The initials were filed off and C.R.O. was engraved between rank and surname.

Dippenaar died in 1937.

Henk

Henk,

Very interesting. Did he apply for an ABO or not? Is there a list of those who applied for ABOs from 1922 but were turned down?

Best wishes,

Justin

Hi Justin

No : this Dippenaar did not apply.

No list of rejected applicants were kept. Individual application forms were annotated as such and the claim-rejection was entered against the applicant's name in the two massive handwritten registers.

Henk

Hi

Here is an ABO/Queens medal combination

ABO - Korporal RC Wilson
Queens medal no bar - Condr RC Wilson ASC

from the ABO roll - Richard Carew Wilson - Gen P A Cronje Kmdo

I have no other information on this man.

Its not a National Scout but he did serve on both sides.

Munroe

Munroe,

Thanks. As far as I can gather he was a National Scout in that was a generic term used by the British for the former burgers who swore the oath of allegiance and then served on the British side.

The National Scouts regiment came later.

As you surmised in an earlier quite a few seem to have served in the A.S.C. and the Corps of Rangers.

But only the second such pairing I've seen!

All the best,

Justin

Hi Munroe & Justin

I do not agree with Justin that the term “National Scout” was used by the Boers prior to the formation of the National Scouts as a unit.
I have an extensive Dutch/Afrikaans Boer War library and the terms used when referring to these renegades were “hensopper”, “joiner”, “judasboer”, “hanskakie” and (occasionally) “rooikop”.” National Scout” is only used in later literature, discussing events in 1901 and 1902 (there was already a small unit of National Scouts in Pretoria as early as Feb 1901).

The QSA/ABO combination to R C Wilson could be to one recipient, but it could also be father & son or family members. There are two estates in the Transvaal Archives for Richard Carew Wilson: one died in 1915 and one in 1953.
· According to the QSA roll (signed in Pretoria 10 Jan 1908) Conductor R C Wilson served in the Army Service Corps from 8 Dec 1900 to 31 May 1902 and the medal was issued on 19 Feb 1908. I do not know if any attestation forms (giving age, etc) for the ASC survived.
· The ABO “Vorm B” for Korporaal Richard Carew Wilson was processed Dec 1944/Jan 1945 and he claimed Boer War service from 23 September 1899 to 31 May 1902. Vorm B was confirmed and signed by Capt E P Snijman DTD MC, whose only query was the original end-of-service date of 31/7/1902 given by Wilson: this was amended to 31 May 1902. Vorm B was obviously submitted by the R C Wilson who died in 1953.

Comments welcome!!

Henk