Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, no clasp (Mr Samuel Weil, J.P. Imp: Trnspt: Ser:) very fine and a rare unit £200-240

Samuel Weil was born in London in 1862, the fourth son of Mr. Louis Weil, an East End trader and his wife Esther. The family prospered, and all four sons of Louis Weil inherited his business acumen. In 1882 Samuel went out to South Africa to join his brother Julius in his new firm Julius Weil & Co., and together they organised the transport for the first Matabele Campaign of 1893. Government contracts then followed, and soon more than a dozen Weil offices and stores were established across southern Africa, from Cape Town to Salisbury. During the Boer War the firm practically supplied all the field transport, and provisioned Mafeking in 1899 during the siege, receiving the official admission, ‘Without the firm’s resources this defence wold have failed.’ Given the honorary rank of Major, the company supplied virtually everything that was needed during the War, including food, clothing, medicine, rifles, tools, ammunition, and other luxuries, as well as organising transportation and storage, and made an enormous profit. Lord Kitchener is reported to have said, ‘Without the Weil brothers supplying food and stores the War would have cost half as much.’
Samuel Weil was also a director of a large number of other companies, as well as a Justice of the Peace for the Cape. He was also a prominent figure in early Rhodesian mining, and in the cold storage industry in South Africa. He died in South Africa on 9 October 1944.

Further information on the recipient and his family can be obtained from the article ‘The man who fed Mafeking’ by Gordon Everson, a copy of which, together with various photographic images, is included with the lot.