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Good evening Rory.
And how unconfined my joy was when I perused your awesome picture and picked up my man Pte W Rawlinson (Number 25) sitting there all smart. My sincere appreciation for this and to the ABF without which I probably would never have given serious thought to what this medal holder looked like.
Fantastic.
(Lucky) Goose.

Whilst some of Vallentin's lads did wear an incised VHV,, that particular badge was actually worn by the 1st Transvaal Volunteers circa 1903 , a regiment of the Transvaal Volunteer force which was created by Milner's new administration for the defence of the Transvaal prior to the Union, it has nothing to do with the SAMIF which Vallentin's men were part of,, they had already been disbanded, the VHV in it's centre is just a reflection that it could be argued that members of the VHV had been the "original" Transvaal volunteers actually during the war

iaindh wrote: Very interesting post, thanks
Robin Smith did an article on Vallentin's Heidel Volunteers : samilitaryhistory.org/vol155rs.html
This is the badge they wore:

regards, Iain

Excellent picture, Rory.

I thought one of the names was familiar.

Rory,

Here's a better copy of the group photo you posted earlier in this thread.



..

That is an excellent picture, Neville.

Ermelo Cemetery