TOPIC:

5 men on the roll with these initials.

Petrus Jacobus. Served: Marico.

Petrus Jacobus. Served: Pretoria.

Petrus Johannes. Served: General de la Rey.

Petrus Johannes. Served: Lichtenburg.

Pretorius, Paul Johannes. Served: Politie.

I bought this group at Aldershot this afternoon. I was initially hesitant because of the erased BWM but I thought this was reflected in the price.

ABO (Burger P L Pretorius)
14-15 Star (Const. P.J. Pretorius G.O.C.Bdy.Gd.)
BWM
Bilingual VM (Kons. P.J. Pretorius K.I.C.L.W.)

The group appeared as lot 219 in the last City Coins auction. The catalogue says 'Constable P J Pretorius, 37 District Heidelberg, was seconded to General Botha’s Body Guard on 15 October 1914.'

There was no paperwork with the group today so I will investigate.

KICLW?

David

I purchased the medal group of a member of Botha's Bodyguard several years ago, and I researched both the man and his unit. Terence King's book, Gallantry Awards of the South African Police 1913-1994, includes information on the Bodyguard. Audrey of rhino.research was very helpful in tracking down 'my' man's service record - not an easy task.

Const P J Pretorius, 3894(M) was recruited from Police District 37 (Heidelberg).

Regards
Brett

Since I used the Quick Reply option for my previous post, I could not add an attachment that might be useful. Here it is:

That's excellent information Brett, many thanks.

The quick reply is mainly for typed responses and does not have all the functionality of the full editor. To be able to do more in the editor, you can either click Reply or, within the quick reply, you can click on 'Go to editor'


Best wishes
David

Thank you for the 'Go to editor' tip, David. I am still a bit nervous about the new format for the site!

I forgot to add that Const Pretorius served in Troop No. 1 of the Bodyguard, which was under 1st Class Sergeant Murphy (Pretoria).

This information came from one of what was evidently a series of reports on the Bodyguard published in the magazine, The Nongqai, I have a photocopy of only one of these reports, which dealt with the assembly of the Bodyguard in Pretoria and move to Cape Town prior to embarking for GSWA. The author, Moore Richie, evidently Const E M Richie from HQ Pretoria, mentions a previous report that dealt with the Rebellion., and I presume there were later reports in subsequent issues of The Nongqai.

By the way, The Nongqai was the indigenous name of the Zululand Police, and it was later chosen as the name for the magazine of the Natal Police into which the Zululand Police had been incorporated in 1898.. In 1913 it became the magazine of the SA Mounted Rifles, SA Police and SA Prisons. After the National Party came to power in 1948, thereby finally winning the Boer War, the name of the magazine was changed to something more suitable for that New SA (which was replaced by another [and current] New SA in 1994).

Regards
Brett