Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Sergeant-Major J. B. Jolly, Cape Police, late Cape Mounted Rifles

Cape of Good Hope General Service 1880-97, 2 clasps, Basutoland, Bechuanaland (Pte. J. B. Jolly.. C.M. Rifles); Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 4 clasps, Defence of Kimberley, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1901, unofficial rivets between state and date clasps (22 Serjt: J. B. Jolly. Cape Police); Mayor of Kimberley’s Star 1899-1900, reverse hallmark with date letter ‘a’, reverse contemporarily engraved ‘Sgt. Mjr. J. B. Jolly. Cape Police D2’, with integral top riband brooch bar; together with a ‘Siege of Kimberley’ Sweetheart’s brooch, in the form of a brass heart, this engraved ‘Boer Shell’, suspended from a brooch bar engraved ‘Siege of Kimberley 1899-1900’, nearly extremely fine (3) £600-£800

Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, March 2008.

Only 77 medals issued with the combination of Basutoland and Bechuanaland clasps.

James Buchanan Jolly served with the Cape Mounted Rifles in Basutoland and Bechuanaland. During the Defence of Kimberley, he was attached to the Headquarters Staff and Depot of the Cape Police Mounted Branch; his low regimental number (22) indicates he was probably one of the earliest members of that Unit. He was attached to District 2 of the Cape Police, which was headquartered at Kimberley. A priority function of the detachment was to patrol the line of rail from the Modder River in the south to the town of Mafeking in the north. Elements of the Cape Police from King William's Town (District 1) were drafted in to support their sister District in this function on orders from the Corps Headquarters in Cape Town.

On 12 October 1899, orders were issued to those Cape Police elements in the field to fall back on Kimberley to boost that small garrison's strength as hostilities were believed imminent. The bulk of them were able to comply with the order whilst others, particularly those closer to Mafeking, were prevented from doing so as a result of the activity of Republican Forces. Consequently, they were forced to fall back on Mafeking, thus the reason for the presence of the Cape Police in both besieged towns.

As one of only two Sergeant Majors (local rank) then on the corps strength in Kimberley, Jolly was attached to the Headquarters' Staff and Depot of the Cape Police's Mounted Branch (350 all ranks) during the defence of the town. About 5,500 men, and a few women, participated in the defence. The majority were positioned in fixed defensive positions, or redoubts, whilst an elite group made up of the Kimberley Light Horse (433 all ranks), Loyal North Lancs Mounted Infantry (22 all ranks), Cape Police Mounted Branch (350 all ranks), Diamond Fields Artillery (114 all ranks), De Beers Maxim Battery (35 all ranks), and mounted elements of the Kimberley Regiment of Volunteers (styled the Diamond Fields Horse, about 200 from a total roll strength of 585 all ranks) made up the mounted branch under the command of Captain (local Lt. Col) Scott-Turner of the Royal Highlanders.

The Branch saw major actions on 25th and 28th November 1899 (at the time, the garrison commander, Lt. Col. Kekewich, believed that the relieving force was close at hand), when they sustained a number of casualties. Scott-Turner's probable reckless conduct on 28th November 1899 resulted in both his death and that of a number of his men.

Sold with copied medal roll extracts and other research.