WHYTE'S THE ECLECTIC COLLECTOR 13 MAY 2023

74 History 142 1914-1918WorldWar I Death Plaque and 1914-15 Star to an officer of the South Africa Irish Regiment. Death Plaque to Hugh George Oughterson, the Star to Lt. H.G. Oughterson, S.A. Irish. The plaque is mounted in a wooden frame with carved legend in English and Afrikaans. Also with this lot a South African Infantry cap badge. Condition: Fine. Lieutenant Oughterson was killed in action on 7 May 2016. The South African Irish was formed at the outbreak of WorldWar I in August 1914 when three officers (Major George Twomey, Captain J. Jeoffreys and a Captain MacDonald) met at the Irish Club in Johannesburg in order to raise an Irish regiment from among the citizens of Johannesburg and its surrounding areas. After a request to The Union Defence Force (UDF) Headquarters, authority was granted to form the regiment and Lieutenant-Colonel Brennan was appointed as its first commanding officer. Sources are not clear on the official date of formation of the South African Irish, but it is either 9 September or 1 December 1914. In any case, the battalion, consisting of six companies, first formed up at Booysens Camp in Johannesburg on the former date. After training, the regiment was made part of 4 South African Infantry Brigade (part of the Northern Force) and embarked from Cape Town to the (then) German South-West Africa on 21 December 1914. On 25 December 1914 the Force landed at Walvis Bay and went into action immediately. The Regiment itself first came into contact with their German enemy on the following day, barely three months after it was raised. At the end of the campaign in South-West Africa, Active Citizen Force regiments were by law not permitted to proceed to other theatres of war as such. Special war service units were thus created to fight in East Africa and Europe. Volunteers from the South African Irish Regiment was formed, together with members of other units, into the composite 9 South African Infantry Regiment. 9 SAI campaigned in East Africa, where it earned the honours Kilimanjaro and East Africa 1916-17. The SA Irish were formally disbanded on 31 December 1919. On 29 January 1921, at a ceremony in Johannesburg, the regiment was posthumously presented with the King’s Colour by Prince Arthur of Connaught, the (then) Governor-General of the Union of South Africa, in recognition of its service in South-West Africa. Estimate €150-€200 (approx £130-£180) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot 142