SOUTH AFRICA MEDAL

A VERY SCARCE SOUTH AFRICA 1877-9 TO A SENIOR NCO OF THE VICTORIA MOUNTED RIFLES AND IS IDENTIFIED IN A GROUP PHOTO OF NCO’S OF HIS UNIT. HE TOOK PART IN THE ZULU WAR INCLUDING THE BATTLE OF INYEZENE ON 22ND JANUARY 1879

SOUTH AFRICA 1877-79, CLASP, 1879 ‘SERGT. FARR. GOVE. VICTORIA MD. RIFLES’.

Sergeant Farrier John Gove served with the Victoria Mounted Rifles during the Zulu War of 1879 and is featured in a photograph of NCO’s of the Victoria and Stanger Mounted Rifles taken in 1879. The two units can be told apart by their caps; Stanger Mounted Rifles wore a forage cap, Victoria Mounted Rifles a kepi. Grove can be clearly identified wearing Sergeants stripes and a Farrier horseshoe badge above and was the only Sergeant Farrier in the unit.

The Victoria Mounted Rifles left Verulan on 2nd December 1878 for the Zululand Frontier as part of the Natal Volunteer Force assigned to Colonel Pearson column. Here they would serve with 4 other small Volunteer units; the Alexandra Mounted Rifles, Durban Mounted Rifles, Stanger Mounted Rifles and the Natal Hussars. These units, along with the troops from Pearson’s column would fight at the battle of Inyezene on 22nd January 1879. However after on Eshowe being besieged, the Victoria Mounted Rifles, along with the other Natal Volunteer units of Column, were sent back to Natal. For the next few months they would do patrol work on the border and would be joined by more men who hadn’t joined earlier.

Condition GVF, very small EK or better. A very scarce medal to one of the senior NCO’s of this small unit but very rare to have an identifiable image of recipient.