Bechuanaland Field Force and the Lang(e)berg Campaign

A new thread of correspondence has arisen from my blogs on Luka Jantjie*.  It deals with medals and badges relating to the Bechuanaland Field Force, and in particular with the Lang(e)berg Campaign.

WordPress does not permit the posting of pictures in comments, so I have created a new blog in response to Robin Scott, who commented on 29 January and later emailed a photo of the badge to me:

Robin does not know the history of this badge, but perhaps one of the readers of this blog may be able to help him.  Robin, perhaps you could sign up to one of the websites dedicated to badge collecting, like this one.  There are a lot of knowledgeable people on these sites and they seem like quite a friendly bunch too.

John Aldridge responded to Robin’s query and emailed a picture of this badge to me:

Interesting to note the different spellings** for the same campaign.

John has also been researching memorials to the men who fell in the Bechuanaland Campaign, and has discovered virtually identical memorials in Kimberley and Cape Town. (St George’s Cathedral).

We are currently investigating the possibility that there is another one in Grahamstown. Does anyone know of any other, similar, memorials in South Africa?

*In earlier blogs, I have used the spelling ‘Jantje’, but have since discovered that the correct spelling is ‘Jantjie,’ with the ‘i’.

**On a lighter note, my maiden name was also subjected to various spellings.  Once, I was asked to spell my surname, and responded, “Cooke, with an e”. A few days later I received a letter addressed to Miss Koek.

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