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Hi everybody

No clasp Elandslaagte on the Boer side, but two ABO medals: one to a Burger, KiA, and one to a Veldkornet, wounded in this battle.

Michael Davitt, in "The Boer Fight for Freedom" reported on both.
Burger Petrus Gerhardus Blignaut was, according to a sworn statement, robbed of his boots, watch, money and snuff-box.
Veldkornet Servaas Daniel de Wet was robbed of his ring and money when he was severely wounded in the left leg

Hi

Hope the attachment comes right this time
Henk

Hello Henk,
Yes, I was pleased to buy Doyle, not a medal you see very often these days, a few years ago now, I did bid on another and I was not even the underbidder, but, you know Henk, I think that the ABO in itself is actually a very scarce medal, that is, I feel, very much the case here at the moment.
I only seem to see a reasonable selection for sale, once a year at City Coins, really a very hard medal to find here in Great Britain and also a medal that I have always liked, I was talking to another member of this forum last year and I recall him telling me that despite going to a number of fairs, he had never actually seen or handled an ABO!
Kind regards Frank

OSAKSA wrote: Hi Frank

I am very pleased that Doyle's ABO found an excellent home in your collection.

Henk

Henk,

Not for nothing were the Royal Army Medical Corps known as "Rob All My Comrades" during the First World War but other contemporary accounts differ from Davitt as to what happened to the dead at Elandslaagte. See Donald Macdonald's account of Ladysmith and events around it "How We Kept the Flag Flying" (1900), page 22. He was the War Correspondent for the 'Melbourne Argus'.

He also comments (p. 24) on the youthfulness of the combatants, ref your ABO to Blignaut Senior:

"The only white-haired man buried was the father of W. (sic) Blignaut, a champion South African athlete."

Further interesting details about the Blignaut father and two sons at Elandslaagte can be found in one of Macdonald's despatches, republished from the Argus in the New Zealand 'Hawke's Bay Herald' in April 1900.

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/papers...d=HBH19000427.2.12.6

Justin

Good morning Justin
That is a very interesting article, the paragraph on the circumstances relating to Piet Blignaut and his death in particular.
A very bloody affair!
Regards Frank

It is source of wonder how interesting details of the Boer War keep emerging. Thank you to Henk, Frank and Justin for recent additions to our store of knowledge of this war.

Regards
Brett