Lot 7346

Lot 7346
Boer War Mocking Medal 1902 commemorating the Ragama Boer POW Camp in Ceylon (AM133, Hern300, Laidlaw0786a) - Obv: Man wearing cap standing beside palm tree, possibly chopping it down with machete; hut on the left; BRITSCHE.1902.BESCHAVING / Rev: SCUM OF THE SCUM, legend around: RAGAMA KAMP HERINNERING - bronze 10.13 gram 30.4 mm - rough strike, VF/XF, very rare\nReputedly struck over ZAR pennies (but unlikely) from dies made by C.F. Keyzer, a former employee of the N.Z.A.S.M. (NEDERLANDSCHE ZUID-AFRIKAANSCHE SPOORWEG MAATSCHAPPIJ). Presumably the work was done after Keyzer had been repatriated.\nThe first batch of prisoners arrived in Ceylon on 9 August 1900 and subsequently others followed until some 5.000 prisoners had landed. Diyatalawa was the main camp. Mt Lavinia was the convalescent camp while foreign volunteers, dissidents and irreconcilables were housed at Ragama.\nIn the wartime correspondence of Jeannot Weinberg, a Jewish POW in Ragama Camp, he writes, 'The Germans, Hollanders, Irish Americans are, with a few exceptions, a most disreputable lot. They are without exaggeration the scum of the scum'. This appellation also appeared in an article in the Times of Ceylon. \nMost of the prisoners in Ceylon were repatriated to South Africa at the end of the war after signing the oath of allegiance to King Edward VII. The foreign volunteers and those who refused to sign were probably given passage on Dutch ships to the Netherlands
Starting price: € 750.00
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Apr 29 2017 10:00:00 AM
May 26 2017 10:00:00 AM
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