Medals won in South Africa
My earliest medals are a pair awarded to 3599 Private George Bush of 7th Dragoon Guards. On the left is the Queen's South African Medal with Transvaal, Orange Free State and Cape Colony bars. On the right is the King's South African Medal with the two bars, for South Africa 1901 and 1902
On the reverse of each medal is the same image - it is of Britannia with a flag in her left hand. Her right hand is holding out a laurel wreath towards an advancing group of soldiers. In the background are two warships.
There are three types of reverses to be found - on the first the wreath is pointing towards the R of Africa and the dates 1899-1900 can be found below the wreath. These are VERY rare because they were only issued to a Canadian unit called Lord Strathcona's Horse, whilst they were in London on their way back to Canada. The Government soon realised that the war would not be over as quickly as they had anticipated so for the next issue they removed the dates by clearing them from the dies - although they can still be seen very faintly on some medals and there are known as "Ghost Dates". The third type had new dies made and the dates are not present. The wreath points to the F of Africa - my pair are of this latter type.
The ghost dates can just be seen about the centre of the photo on the example above (you have to look carefully!) - also note that the wreath is pointing to the "R" of Africa - unlike on my medals where it is pointing to the "F"
This is the white metal badge of the 7th Dragoon Guards of the period when Private George Bush won his QSA and KSA
