TOPIC:

Here Glanville is on the Damant's other QSA roll. He has Yes in the South Africa 1901 and No in the South Africa 1902 columns under Whether Entitled to Date Clasps but then has the issue date of 22/8/07 so I say he got the 1901 clasp.

I think the original owner say a line under or through the name and didn't think he got it issued.

Hi
Medals to Rimington’s Guides/Damant’s Horse have been very high on my priority list from my earliest collecting days.



I acquired the group to Thomas Duke some 25 years ago and over the years I was able to add a little to the Info file that came with the medals from the late Paul Fauche.
In “South African Eden” p76/7, Major James Stevenson-Hamilton (the first game warden of the Sabi Game Reserve which later became the Kruger National Park) wrote about Duke:
“…..the ranger whom I had engaged for the Crocodile River area had left, after about 2 months’ service, and I had engaged an old fellow campaigner in the person of Thomas Duke, late of Rimington’s Guides. Duke, who was a little over 40 years old at the time, had come to South Africa as a small baby, his parents having emigrated from the south of Ireland.
His life had been an interesting one. His father had been a successful farmer in the Cape Eastern Province up to the time of a native rising in the early seventies, when his homestead was burned. Duke himself, a boy of about twelve, was beaten and otherwise ill-treated, until, during the night when his captors were asleep, he was unbound and released by an old native servant of the family. He then walked and ran in his bare feet and practically naked, for about twelve miles, till he reached safety. His father, fortunately for himself, happened to be away at the time of the raid, and Duke said the natives treated his mother and sisters remarkedly well, sending them under safe conduct to the nearest white post. Later he joined the Cape Mounted Police, and in that well - known corps, rose to the rank of sergeant. Indeed, he was so well thought of by his superiors, that he would probably have received further promotion , had he not accepted an attractive offer in the Orange Free State detective service, with which he remained until the outbreak of the South African War , when he joined Rimington's Guides. Attached as intelligence agent to Le Gallais' column, he was responsible for its guidance on the night when General de Wet came nearer to being captured than on any other occasion during the campaign, although during the skirmish following the surprise, the leader, Le Gallais of the 8th Hussars, was killed. For this service Duke had been awarded the DCM.

During the last year of the war I had been in the same column with him under General Mike Rimington, and had become so impressed with his qualities, especially in regard to dealing with natives, that I had determined to secure his services on the first opportunity. He was a perfect linguist in the Xhosa language, which so nearly resembles the other east coast tongues that he quickly became proficient in the local dialect, though his native name always continued to be M'Xhosa throughout the low-veld, until his death more than 30 years later.”
The official recommendation for Duke’s DCM does not specifically mention the Le Gallais incident.



During his first years as ranger Duke lived in a primitive pole-and-mud hut in Lower Sabie. In 1910 this was replaced with a neat wood-and-corrugated iron building which he occupied till his retirement in 1923.





He then got permission from the Parks Board to operate a trading store at Sabie Bridge and in 1931 he became gate-official and permit issuer at Crocodile Bridge. In 1932 he was succeeded by his son, T R Duke, who looked after his father till his death in March 1934.





In 1976 a waterhole with 2 boreholes bordering the Shimangwane Spruit, some 10 km south of Lower Sabie, was named in memory of Thomas Duke.
Henk
PS The 2-bar CGSM is scarce : 18 with the Transkei/Bechuanaland combination issued
H

Henk
Just when I think that your contributions to this forum cannot get any better, they do! Thank you for a really great post on a remarkable man with a remarkable group of medals
Regards
Brett

Hello Henk,
Please tell me, how old were you when you bought your first single campaign medal, why did you buy it and do you remember the recipient's details?
Regards Frank

Hi Frank
Yes : I remember my first medal purchase. I briefly set out the circumstances leading to the transaction in the personal note Natalie asked me to write for the current City Coins catalogue.



I was 36 years old when I strolled into City Coins’ small shop on the Foreshore and said I wanted to buy a DTD (at that stage I had a QSA and an ABO medal (both gifts) in my “collection”). Allan Jaffe tactfully informed me that I was looking for a very elusive item, gave me his 1969 copy of the Spink Medal Catalogue, showed me a copy of “British Battles and Medals” and sold me 4 medals.
I selected the 6-battle bar QSA to Dr(iver) Hutt because I thought he was a Doctor. The ABO medal was the only one in stock and turned out to be an excellent acquisition as I later established that Baasdon had enlisted in the National Scouts after serving in the Heidelberg Commando. The cheapest item (a 6 bar QSA and a KSA to Pte C Rawson of the W Yorks Rgt) was disposed of in 1994.
Henk
PS I also remember an attractive young lady sitting demurely in the corner of the shop : more than 4 decades later I still know her very well!

Hello Henk,
I have no wish to take this thread off topic, but, you understand, I just had to ask that question, you know, you were once described to me as a complete gentleman, now I am certainly convinced that to be the case without any doubt whatsoever.
So thirty six years old, I have to say I was a little surprised, I honestly thought it would have been rather earlier, I think you have done very well indeed and far better than most of us can ever really hope to do.
It is a great pastime and one that has occupied much of my own time, but, I have always collected on more than one "front" which is not a wise thing to do and sadly it has often meant having to take very difficult choices, many of which, I have had the time to reflect on because, so often, they were the wrong choices.
I've thought many times about the Anglo Boer War and whether or not to stick to it without any deviation, again sadly, I have never been able to do it, the regimental collection gets in the way all too often, as does the RNAS/RFC/RAF.
Why did you choose to focus upon the Anglo Boer War in particular?
Regards again Frank