Country: New Zealand
Issued on: n/a
Date of presentation: abt. January 1901
Number issued: 1
Gold medal, to:
Major-General Robert S.S. BADEN-POWELL
Presentation made by the gold miners of Preservation Inlet.
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Southland Times, 23rd February 1901
"B.P's" Thanks. — Some months ago the gold miners at Preservation Inlet appropriately sent a gold medal, bearing an inscription, to Major-General Baden-Powell as their recognition of his stubborn and skillful defence of Mafeking. Mr Gilfedder, M.H.R., was the ''spokesman" for the miners and has now received the note which follows from General Baden-Powell, written at Tuurfontein, Transvaal, on 4th January: —
"Dear Sir, — l have just received the very pretty and original token from the miners of Preservation Inlet, Otago, together with your letter. I ask you to be so kind as to tell them that I am most grateful for the kind thought that has prompted them to send me this tangible mark of their goodwill. We in Mafeking did no more than our duty — no more than each and every one of you would have done under similar circumstances, and, that being so, we neither look for nor deserve any special recognition of our work. At the same time, we are only human after all, and, as in every other branch of life, if when doing our duty, we receive the approbation of our brother Britons and their sympathy in our distress, it greatly stimulates us to further effort and to bear greater trials with a light heart. I am therefore most grateful to your generous constituents for their kindness, and I shall always treasure the medal as a memento of the generous appreciation and sympathy extended to the Mafeking garrison by our brothers across the sea. — With many thanks for your kind letter, believe me, etc."
