Historical and Art Medals, Numismatic Books

St Helena, Prisoner of War Camp, 1900, a cast bronze medal, unsigned, arms of ZAR above head of Paul Kruger, Britannia and arms of St Helena at sides, rev. camp on hill, ter gedachtenis aan de bueren krygsgevangenen above, 45mm. Shallow relief and poorly executed, but fine or better, extremely rare (£150-250)

During the Boer War the British took some 20,000 Boers prisoner and, with the prisoner-of-war camps in South Africa seriously overcrowded, the decision was taken to ship prisoners to Bermuda, India, Diyatalawa (Ceylon) and St Helena. From 1900 to 1902 6,000 Boers were shipped to St Helena and housed in encampments on Deadwood Plain and Broad Bottom; they included General Piet Cronjé and Commandant Eloff, a grandson of Paul Kruger. It is recorded that any particular troublesome prisoners were confined to High Knoll, a large fort isolated on a hill top, which the cataloguer suggests may be the building depicted on the reverse of the medal. A copy of the article ‘Boer prisoners of war on the Island of St Helena’ by A.J. Nathan is sold with the lot