Colony: Natal
Issued on: n/a
Date of presentation: 16/06/1902
Number issued: 22 or 23
Silver nurse's belts, to:
Natal Volunteer Medical Corps –
Nursing Sister Constance Spong ADDISON [Mrs Mail / Male] (Ladysmith / Intombi Camp)
Nursing Sister Elizabeth BAMBER [Bessie Bamber] (Intombi Camp; on QSA medal roll, but not listed in the Natal Volunteer Record or by Sister Pentney - see below)
Nursing Sister Jessie BRADBURY (Ladysmith / Intombi Camp)
Nursing Sister Elaine BROMILOW (Intombi Camp)
Nursing Sister Kate M. CHAMPION (Intombi Camp)
Nursing Sister Alice COUPER (Maritzburg Hospital)
Nursing Sister Bella CRAW (Ladysmith)
Nursing Sister Rhoda DAVIES (Ladysmith) (belt believed to have been stolen while on loan to the Warriors Gate MOTH Museum, Durban)
Nursing Sister E.E. DEANE (Ladysmith)
Nursing Sister Kate DRIVER [Mrs Boyd] (Intombi Camp)
Nursing Sister Ethel M. EARLEY [Early] (Intombi Camp)
Nursing Sister H. GALLOWAY [M. Galloway] (Martizburg Hospital)
Nursing Sister G.L. GOODMAN [H.J. Goodman] (Ladysmith)
Matron [Nursing Sister] Colina MACLEAY (Maritzburg Hospital)
Nursing Sister Grace MILNE-MILLER (Maritzburg Hospital)
Nursing Sister Margaret NICOLSON (Intombi Camp)
Nursing Sister Susan M.G. OTTO [Justin M.G. Otto / Mrs Hartly] (Intombi Camp)
Nursing Sister L. PAIN [Payne] (Intombi Camp)
Nursing Sister Maud Mary PENTNEY [Mrs Rowland] (Intombi Camp)
Nursing Sister Sientje RUITER [S. Reuter / Mrs Gilroy] (Ladysmith / Intombi Camp)
Nursing Sister Chrissie Emma THOMPSON (Intombi Camp)
Nursing Sister Annie WEBBER (Ladysmith)
Nursing Sister Lucy Alice YEATMAN [Yeateman] (Intombi Camp)
KNOWN BELTS HIGHLIGHTED IN GREEN
Type 1 (Ladysmith Hospitals; 18 or 19).
"PRESENTED / by the / NATAL CARBINEERS / TO / NURSE [C.E. THOMPSON] / IN RECOGNITION OF HER GREAT / SERVICES TO THE MEN OF THE / REGIMENT / DURING THE / SIEGE / OF LADYSMITH / NOV. 2. 1899. / FEB. 28. 1900".
Type 2 (Maritzburg Hospital; 4).
"PRESENTED / by the / NATAL CARBINEERS / TO / NURSE [H. GALLOWAY] / IN RECOGNITION OF HER GREAT / SERVICES TO THE MEN OF THE / REGIMENT / DURING THE / S. AFRICAN WAR / 1899-1900".
Type 3 (Nurse Webber; 1903 hallmarks)
"PRESENTED / TO / NURSE WEBBER / BY THE / NATAL CARBINEERS / IN RECOGNITION OF / HER SERVICES / SIEGE OF LADYSMITH / NOV 2ND 1899 / FEB 28TH 1900".
Supplied by Forsyth & Co., watchmaker & jewellers, Maritzburg.
Note: the belt to Nursing Sister Webber has later 1903 hallmarks, and appears to have been issued without the rectangular buckle found on the 1902 examples (which have 1901 hallmarks). The belt is also constructed with the roundels in a different order and has a different, shorter, inscription (see below).
Photograph showing the Webber and Galloway presentation engravings side by side. The Webber example seems less refined. It lacks the tooled detail around the circumference, and a clasp replaces the two chain loops on the right.
The belts were forwarded to the recipients, each with a covering letter from the Captain & Adjutant of the Natal Carbineers, dated 16th June 1902: "Dear Madam. It is my pleasant duty to ask, on behalf of the Officers, N.C.O.’s & Men of the Natal Carbineers, that you will accept from them the silver belt, which is being sent you by this post, as a slight recognition of the great services rendered by you to the members of this Regiment during the late War. These services will never be forgotten by every man of this Regiment, by every man of the Natal Volunteers, and by the whole Colony. With the Regiment’s sincere wishes for your future welfare & happiness".
Covering letter sent to Nurse Galloway
Pentney example extant in 1950.
Couper example held in the collection of the Museum Africa [Africana Museum], Johannesburg (K.G. Gibbon 1980 & Oosthuizen 1987).
Champion example in the Natal Carbineers Museum (K.G. Gibbon 1980).
Otto example on display in the Ladysmith Siege Museum.
Craw example seen in Durban, 2018.
Davies example believed to have been stolen while on loan to the Warriors Gate MOTH Museum, Durban.
Galloway example offered through Dix Noonan Webb, 30/06/1998 (estimate £3,500 - £4,500) & 27/06/2002 (estimate £2,000 - £3,000), unsold.
Early example sold through Dix Noonan Webb, 04/12/2002, for £1,100.
Thompson example sold through City Coins, Cape Town, Dec 2004, for R43,000 (£3,670).
Galloway example sold through Dix Noonan Webb, 19/09/2013, for £2,600.
Webber example sold through Old Johannesburg Warehouse Auctions, 12/11/2017, for R30,000 (£1,640; Ray Leppan Collection; without buckle).
Thompson example sold through Noonans, 26/07/2023, for £17,000.
Webber example sold through Kaplan Auctions, 16/08/2023, for R50,000 ZAR (£2,050).
Natal Volunteer Record, 1900, p. 79
Natal Daily News, 27/02/1950
K.G. Gibbon, Military Medal Society of South Africa, 1980, Vol. 17, part 2, p. 4
Oosthuizen 1987, p. 124
City Coins, Cape Town, Dec 2004
Alec Kaplan & Son, 16/08/2023
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Natal Daily News, 27th February 1950
Three nursing heroines will meet again at Ladysmith siege reunion.
Two of the 18 nursing sisters who went through the siege of Ladysmith just over 50 years ago are still living in Durban.
They are Miss Kate CHAMPION, Royal Red Cross, now well over 80 and living at the Alpha House; and Mrs M.M. ROWLAND, now 74 and living at Eastwood Road, who was Sister Maud Mary PENTNEY at the time of the siege.
They will be joined in Durban tomorrow by Mrs K. BOYD (Sister Kate DRIVER), who will arrive in the mail ship from the Cape. All three plan to travel to Ladysmith for the jubilee celebrations at the end of the week.
Mrs ROWLAND, a gentle little old lady with white hair and blue eyes, showed me her treasures today – her Queen’s Medal; a beautiful chased gold watch from the Border Mounted Rifles; a miniature silver shield inscribed in gratitude by the Natal Mounted Rifles; and a Natal Carbineers belt in silver, with 11 medallions in it to commemorate the Ladysmith Town Hall, an ambulance wagon, dhooli bearers, a signaller, a nurse, Long Tom and its shells, the arms of Natal, the Carbineers badge ….
The 18 heroines.
MRS ROWLAND provided a note for historians when she gave me a list of the six nurses who served in Ladysmith itself and the 12 who were at Ntombi, the hospital set up outside the town when Joubert protested that the army was sheltering behind the Red Cross.
She knows of five surviving: Constance ADDISON, now married to Captain MAIL in Swaziland; Kate DRIVER BOYD of the Cape; J[?]ustin OTTO, now the widowed Mrs HARTLEY, who lives with a son at Springs; Kate CHAMPION; and herself.
Among those now dead were seven sisters – Jessie BRADBURY, Lucy YEATMAN, Margaret NICOLSON, Ethel EARLY, Chrissie THOMPSON, L. PAYNE, Elaine BROMELOW.
She has lost track of the remaining six – Sisters E.E. DEAN, Bella CRAW, Annie WEBBER, H.J. GOODMAN, R. DAVIES and Santjie RUITER.
A memory.
SISTER Maud Mary put away her treasures. A far-off look came into her eyes. She sighed, but not unhappily, and murmured:
“I had my first ‘date’ in Ladysmith – a cavalry officer, such a handsome young man …”
Roll published in the "Natal Volunteer Record, Anglo-Boer War, 1899-1900" (Robinson & Co., Durban, 1900), p. 79.
One name is missing from the Intombi list: Nursing Sister Elizabeth BAMBER [Bessie Bamber]. She is also absent from the list of nurses that Sister Pentney gave to the Natal Daily News in February 1950.
Sister Galloway's belt. One of only four presented to nurses who served in the Assembly Hospital, Martizburg.
Sister Bella Craw's belt, Durban 2018.
Sister Webber's belt (courtesy of Old Johanesburg Warehouse Auctions)
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Antiques Trade Gazette, 7th August 2023
Nurse’s Boer War belt bought by private museum
A silver and gold presentation belt given to a civilian volunteer nurse who looked after the sick and wounded during the Siege of Ladysmith during the second Boer War has soared over estimate in a London auction.
Presentation belt given to civilian nurse Chrissie Thompson for service during the Siege of Ladysmith, £17,000 at Noonans.
Guided at £1000-1400, it made £17,000 at Mayfair saleroom Noonans (24% buyer’s premium) on July 26.
The belt was awarded by the Natal Carbineers to Chrissie Emma Thompson of the Natal Volunteer Medical Corps in recognition of her great service.
Medical focus
Christopher Mellor-Hill of Noonans said the belt was sold “by an elderly collector of Boer War medals as part of the most rarefied and comprehensive section of medical awards for the Boer War to come onto the market.
“It was the highlight of this medical collection and was bought by a private museum dedicated to the Anglo-Boer War.”
It is hallmarked for Birmingham 1901 and features a maker’s mark T&JB. With a silver waist belt clasp applied with gold badge of the carbineers hallmarked 9ct, the belt includes 11 silver roundels linked by silver chains.
Two are inscribed Presented by the Natal Carbineers to Nurse C. E. Thompson, in recognition of her great services to the men of the Regiment and During the Siege of Ladysmith Nov. 2. 1899. to Feb. 28. 1900.
One of the inscriptions to the presentation belt that sold at Noonans.
The remaining roundels depict scenes such as Maritzburg [sic] Town Hall and a covered ambulance wagon.
Thompson was mentioned in dispatches by Sir George White for services during the Defence of Ladysmith (London Gazette, February 8, 1901) and was appointed a Member of the Royal Red Cross for services in South Africa on March 13, 1903, the recommendation stating: ‘In recognition of the services rendered by them in tending the sick and wounded at the Volunteer Hospital, at Intombi…’
It is thought 18 of these belts were awarded. Six were for service in Ladysmith itself and others – including Thompson’s – for Intombi Camp Hospital (after an agreement between Sir George White and Boer commander Piet Joubert, the British in Ladysmith decided to establish a neutral camp about 5km away).
Another of these belts, given to nursing sister E.M. Early, was sold at Noonans (formerly Dix Noonan Webb) for £1100 in December 2002, while that of H. Galloway made £2600 at the same saleroom in September 2013.
Collectors’ website
angloboerwar.com includes a long discussion on the whereabouts of the belts and the medals also awarded to the nurses.
Thompson’s belt is given a provenance to ‘City Coins, Cape Town, December 2004, for R43,000 (£3670)’.
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Nursing Sisters Sientje RUITER [Reuter] and Kate CHAMPION
Nursing Sisters Jessie BRADBURY & Constance ADDISON
Nursing Sister Kate DRIVER
The Nursing Staff at the Leigslative Buildings Hospital, Maritzburg. Recipients Alice Couper, H. Galloway, Colina Macleay and Grace Milne-Miller are probably in this photograph (Navy & Army Illustrated, 10 Mar 1900, vol. IX, p. 636).
Nurses at Intombi Neutral Camp (Kisch & Tugman, 1900, Plate XCI)
