From the next City Coins auction, November 2020
ABO (Burg. P.F. Brits)
With a length of LvW (Wound Riband)
Pieter Frederick Brits was 22 years old when he was killed in the action at Frederikstad. He served in the Schoonspruit Ward of the Potchefstroom Commando under General Liebenberg and was in action at all the early engagements on the Western Front, including Kraaipan, Mafeking and Magersfontein. The ABO medal was posthumously claimed in 1921 by his brother, G L Brits, on behalf of his mother, Mrs J C Potgieter (she had re-married pre-Boer War after Pieter’s father died). In the LvW Application (Vorm “C”) it was stated that Pieter had suffered a bullet wound and a number of bayonet wounds to the body.
A second application for medals of members of the Brits family, including Pieter Brits, was lodged in 1955 by another brother, Mr O C Brits. It is not clear if the original ABO had been lost, or whether Mr O C Brits was unaware of the 1921 issue. This application was turned down as duplicate medals could, as per regulation, only be issued to living recipients in the case of theft or other proven causes of loss.
