Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Transvaal, Wittebergen (5924 Pte. J. Dandy, Lan. Fus. M.I.) suspension claw re-pinned and slack, some edge bruising and contact marks, good fine £60-80

In 1888 the system of training Mounted Infantry was started at Aldershot. A company of Mounted Infantry was composed of four detachments from certain battalions of Infantry Regiments. These detachments were called ‘sections’ and were composed of about thirty men and one officer. Men selected had to be marksmen, of good character and physique and not above a certain weight; in effect a picked infantry soldier but with extra means of locomotion. In this he differed from a Mounted Rifleman, who although needing to be a good shot, did not have the same discipline and solidity of the former with which to stand steady in a square or to face severe fire when attacking a position. When the Boer War began, each Infantry Battalion had one of these specialised units. They were an elite corps and in effect, a ‘rapid reaction force’; sometimes operating with their battalion and other times joining up in larger units of combined M.I. As such, on many occasions, members of a Mounted Infantry unit would earn clasps not earned by the parent regiment.

Medals named to Mounted Infantry units are scarce. The clasp ‘Wittebergen scarce to unit.