St John Ambulance Brigade in South Africa 1900-1902

Background, Overview of progress & Medal numbers

This project started in the mid 1970s when I found a broken SJAB Bronze medal for South Africa in a junk shop whilst visiting my nan in Leicestershire. The Royal Mint kindly repaired the medal (free of charge) by replacing the ribbon suspender. A few years later I read an article by Lt Col R E Cole-Mackintosh in the St John Review [type: Hospital Ship in the search bar to find the right page] and discovered the Queen's South Africa Medal and the China Medal and visits to the Public Record Office in Kew found the Medal Rolls and my research interest began.

A visit to The Museum of the Order of St John located the 'Order of St John of Jerusalem, Register of Issue of Special South African Bronze Medals 1899-1902' which I manually transcribed and then created a database which has been used to create the 'service number and surname only entries' in the surviving medals listing. There may well be some mis-spelling of names but I'm pretty confident that the Service Numbers are complete and correct. I read Beighton & De Villiers article on the SJAB men who died of disease in South Africa and their graves and memorials and began to find images of the memorials in England and Wales. More recently the South Africa War Graves Project has provided some images of graves and memorials in South Africa. Sadly, they report that many of the metal grave markers have been taken and sold for scrap. This was the basis for the Men Who Died in South Africa Page.

Nearly fifteen years ago, I listed all the medals that I then knew existed, as the Register of Surviving Medals issued to the St John Ambulance Brigade which was hosted on the Anglo Boer War Forum and that is the basis for the Surviving Medals page of this website. As of May 2026 a tolal of  376 (about 20%) SJAB SA Bronze medals and 357 associated QSA medals are known to exist. For SJAB SA medals awarded for home service 16 (about 30%) are known to survive. Please email-in any corrections, missing data and new or better quality images.

A big thank you to everone who has contributed and added to the knowledge-base. I am aware that some of the images are not of high quality and, with time, hope to be able to replace them. The skeleton of the website is now (almost) in place and the surviving medals page is also the SJAB medal roll with details of the Service Number and Surname [in time more details will be added - Rank, Initials & Unit]. This can be searched using ctrl+f to identify the recipient by surname or service number. Correlation with the QSA roll and clasp entitlement is planned but is likely to evolve at quite a slow pace. 

The medal numbers still don't quite add up but are now more accurate than the 1,871 which has been cited for many years (details are below on this page).

Medal re-unites and medals re-united pages have been added. The arrangements for direct enlistment in the RAMC are now included (with a show stopping Brigade Order 40 that directed men to be struck-off the Brigade strenght on enlistment with the RAMC). SJAB changed their rank structure on 1 January 1901 and the new ranks were engraved on their bronze SA Medals. A different story for the Queen's South Africa medal where SJAB Privates were ranked as Orderlies (impressed as ORDLY: on rim) and Supernumerary Officers (Classes 1 & 2) were impressed with the abbreviation SPLY: OFFCR: details here. Any suggestions to add to the external links page would also be welcome.

This website is now developing in to a more holistic record of SJAB activities in South Africa (and China), the individuals involved and their associated medals. I have some original group photgraphs which (when I find them) will be digitised and added. Assembling 50 years of sometimes unfoccussed data gathering is of necessity a bit random and a few catastropic data losses before the 'cloud' was even dreamt of, has had a detrimental effect (especially with attribution of credits for photographs - my appologies and I will correct when advised) but hopefully this project will bring out more clarity and structure and will eventually prove to be a useful resource and definitive worldwide databank. 

Calvin Mason OStJ

London

May 2026

The story of the SJAB SA medal starts here: SJAB Annual REport 1902

medals Awarded

HRH Recipiants

2

Added in at end

From 1902 Annual Report. Not recorded in SJAB Medal Roll

Inaugural Investiture

15

As listed above and also recorded in SJAB Medal Roll

Home Service

40

Listed in SJAB SA Medal Roll with no Service Numbers

TOTAL HOME

55

South Africa service (SJAB)

1769

Listed in SJAB SA Medal Roll with SJAB Service Numbers

South Africa service (RAMC)

83

Listed in SJAB SA Medal Roll with RAMC Service Numbers

TOTAL SOUTH AFRICA

1852

GRAND TOTAL

1907

Number stated in 1902 report (above) = 2 + 15 + 1856 = 1873

Add 40 (Home Service) = 1913  

PLUS HRH (2)

1909

 = number of named medals identified   (discrepancy of +/- 4)