Queen's South Africa Medal

Queen's South Africa Medal
Awarded by the Monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and Empress of India
Country	United Kingdom
Type	Military Campaign medal
Eligibility	British and Colonial forces
Awarded for	Campaign service
Campaign(s)	Second Boer War
Clasps	26
Statistics
Established	1900
Total awarded	Approximately 178,000
Order of wear
Next (higher)	East and Central Africa Medal
Next (lower)	Queen's Mediterranean Medal
Related	King's South Africa Medal Kimberley Star Cape Copper Company Medal for the Defence of O'okiep
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The Queen's South Africa Medal is a British campaign medal which was awarded to British and Colonial military personnel, civilians employed in official capacity and war correspondents who served in the Second Boer War in South Africa. Altogether twenty-six clasps were awarded to recipients of the Queen's South Africa Medal, to indicate particular actions and campaigns of the Second Boer War.

The Queen's South Africa Medal was instituted by Queen Victoria in 1900, for award to military personnel, civilian officials and war correspondents who served in South Africa during the Second Boer War from 11 October 1899 to 31 May 1902.

Three versions of the medal are known. Since the war was initially expected to be of short duration and to reach its conclusion in 1900, the first medals were struck with the years "1899" and "1900" on the reverse. Approximately fifty of these medals were awarded before it became evident that the war was going to drag on much longer. The rest of the dated medals which had already been minted, therefore had these dates machined off. The third version was minted with an altered reverse and without the years.

Poor logistics and disease, combined with having to fight against a disciplined and capable enemy of excellent horsemen and marksmen who perfected guerrilla warfare, made this a hard-won medal. In addition to men often having to go without basics such as food and water, enteric fever killed several thousand and was a constant drain on manpower. The published casualty rolls run to over 50,000 names, while studies of contemporary publications and reports put the actual figure for all casualties at 97,000.

This war is notorious for the British scorched earth policy, which was implemented when it became clear that the guerrilla tactics practiced by the Boer forces could not be overcome by conventional means. In 1901, Emily Hobhouse reported on the genocide in the 45 British concentration camps for Boer women, children and elderly in which, over an 18-month period, 26,370 people would die, 24,000 of them boys and girls under 16. Exact mortality figures in the 64 concentration camps for black displaced farm workers and their families are not known, but may have been even worse.

The Queen's South Africa Medal was awarded to all British forces who served in South Africa from 11 October 1899 up to the end of the war on 31 May 1902. Units from the British Army, Royal Navy, colonial forces from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, the Cape of Good Hope, the Colony of Natal and "hensoppers" (joiners and collaborators, literally "hands-uppers") from the South African Republic and Orange Free State, civilians employed in official capacity, war correspondents, and non-enlisted men of whatever nationality who drew military pay, qualified for the award of the medal. This included those such as the New Zealand 10th Contingent, who arrived in Durban in May 1902, but did not fight.

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