TOPIC:

A clasp inscribed "Relief of Mafeking" will be granted to all troops under the command of Colonel Mahon, who marched from Barkly West on May 4th, 1900, and all troops who were under Colonel Plumer's command between October 11th, 1899, and May 17th, 1900, both dates inclusive, and who were south of an east and west line drawn through Palachwe.

Picture courtesy of Noble Numismatic.

Confirmed single clasp to 331 Tpr Henry Urwin, Rhodesia Regiment.

David
It seems surprising that this one - as a single clasp - does not surface more often. Just now I had a quick run through my old Kaplan roll for the RofM and there are quite a few of the Rhodesia Regt. who are down only for that clasp. I suppose some might have served with other units later on; Kaplan does show a number did so serve. However that still leaves quite a few. Any ideas?
Regards
IL.

Interesting question Ian.

SIngle clasp RoM for men of Mahon's southern column is not hard; they only served in the Cape Colony.

But for men of the northern column - Plumer, it is more problematic. The qualifying dates for RoM and Rhodesia clasps are almost the same, 11-10-1899 to 17 or 25-05-1900. For RoM they had to be south of a line drawn through Palachwe - i.e. in Bechuanaland and not Rhodesia. Therefore these single clasp RoM guys from the northern force spent the qualifying period for the Rhodesia clasp south of Palachwe, in Bechuanaland.

Could be an indicator of interesting border service on the Bechuanaland/Transvaal frontier.

Regards
Meurig

Meurig
While RofM is one of my favourite clasps, I must admit that I have not looked at certain qualification aspects I always had more regard for those in Plumer's Northern Force as they had a tougher time of it. However, it is still a nice clasp to see. This afternoon, I had a trawl through Stan Kaplan's published roll of the "Relief Of Mafeking" clasp - looking for single clasp entitlement where there was no marginal comment about other clasps or service in other units. I made it 49 entitlements. A few from BSAP, more from the Rhod.Regt and others scattered throughout. Mea Culpa if I missed some.
Of course, some of the 49 may have served in other units without marginal comment. Doubtless, an updated roll would show more detail.
Less than fifty apparent roll entitlements (at this point) makes a single clasp RofM as quite scarce.
Any comment on this entitlement would be very welcome.
IL.

Hello Ian

I have recorded 42 single RoM, distribution by unit matches your observation. I have not databased the RoM clasp yet.

In the history I suspect we will find an outpost of the Rhodesia Rgt in Bechuanaland in 1899. Would love to delve deeper but work calls

Regards
Meurig