The term Boer is derived from the Afrikaans word for farmer and was used to describe the people in southern Africa who traced their ancestry to Dutch, German and French Huguenot settlers.
A German supplied Boer Mauser Model 1897 used by in South Africa by
Veld Kornet (Captain) Jacobus Cornelius Beukes of the Heilbron
Commando, OVS (Orange Free State).
A silver bodyguard badge belonging to Private Edward Bannister Signal - one of three New Zealanders attached to the personal bodyguard of
Lord Roberts, Commander-in-Chief of British forces in South Africa,
January - November 1900.
Ammunition bandolier thought to have belonged to Trooper George Bradford, the first New Zealander killed in action during the South African ('Boer') War.
Having answered the Empire's call to arms against the breakaway Boer states in South Africa, New Zealand troops fired their first shots in anger in northern Cape Colony.
During the second half of the 19th century a tradition developed in Britain to erect war memorials to those who had died in foreign wars and had no grave at home.
