TOPIC:

A recent purchase to:-
340 Private Stephen Van Der Merwe Graaff-Reinet Town Guard
I purchased this medal because I had previously researched this town and it seems to have been quite a strategist area during the war.
What really caught my interest was that the Coldstream Guards were stationed there.
South African Military website has a really good write up (link below)

samilitaryhistory.org/vol073vm.html

This site explains a little about the stationed Coldstreamer's

On 20 December 1900 martial law was declared in Graaff-Reinet, but the loyalists in town were given a bad fright when news reached them that Kritzinger was in the neighbourhood of Middelburg and was heading their way. Kritzinger in fact, with a commando of approximately 400 men (sections having split-off under the other leaders), made for, and occupied, the village of New Bethesda in the Graaff-Reinet district, north of the town. Any plans he may have had to occupy Graaff-Reinet were forestalled by the arrival at midnight on Old Year's Eve, 1900, of 600 of the Coldstream Guards.

And they still seem to be celebrated today:-

karoospace.co.za/graaff-reinet-club-home...e-coldstream-guards/

There is a nice memorial to the Boer commando

www.graaffreinet.co.za/listing/angloboer_war_memorial

Anyway back to the medal:-
Pte.Van Der Merwe shows an entitlement to a no clasp QSA in WO100/281








I am assuming his surname would be of Dutch origin? if anyone has any comments or information, most welcome.

Paul

Hello Paul,
So you bought it because of the geographical location!
Have you got any medals to the Coldstream Guards?
Regards Frank

Hello Frank,

Just one single QSA to a Coldstreamer www.angloboerwar.com/forum/5-medals-and-...rn-coldstream-guards
And I have a single KSA also.

Paul

Frank Kelley wrote: Hello Paul,
So you bought it because of the geographical location!
Have you got any medals to the Coldstream Guards?
Regards Frank

Paul

Van der Merwe is a famous Afrikaner (Boer/Dutch) family name. This particular man was obviously not a 'Cape Rebel' and there were probably many on the Boer side who disapproved of him.

Regards
Brett

PS 'Van der Merwe' is a famous man noted for his ineptitude and naivety, who is the central figure in many South African jokes. He is the counterpart of that Irishman, Paddy, and other such national notables.

PPS Many years ago in the last Century, I met a woman whose maiden name was van der Merwe, who claimed a pure and unadulterated connection with the patriarch of the family lineage in South Africa. She was (and perhaps still is) a spectacular black-haired, blue-eyed beauty, clearly with the most superior genes. No-one made jokes about her.

Hello Brett,

Interesting explanation of the Van der Merwe name
For some reason I thought it might be unusual,but seems quite common then.

Paul

Hello Paul,
I meant to say that Graaff-Reinet is, for me at least, where that devil Gideon Scheepers was at last called to account!
Perhaps your man saw it.
Regards Frank