South Africa Medal

• Name — South Africa Medal (1880) • Presenter — the Monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and Empress of India • Country — United Kingdom • Type — Military Campaign medal • Eligibility — British forces & Colonial volunteers • Awarded For — Campaign service • Campaign — Gaika-Gcaleka War 1877-8 War against Chief Pokwane 1878 Griqua War 1878 Sekhukhune War 1878 Anglo-Zulu War 1879 War against Chief Moirosi 1879 Sekhukhune War 1879 • Clasps — 1877 1877-8 1877-8-9 1877-9 1878 1878-9 1879 • Established — 1 August 1880 • Total Awarded — Circa 36,600 • Precedence Label — Order of wear • Higher — Ashantee Medal • Lower — Afghanistan Medal (United Kingdom) • Related — South Africa Medal (1853) • Image2 Size — x29px • Caption2 — Ribbon bar

In 1854, Queen Victoria had given approval for the award of the South Africa Medal (1853) to members of the British Army who had served in any one of the three South African Xhosa Wars of 1834–36, 1846–47 and 1850–53 on the Eastern Frontier of the Cape of Good Hope. Between 1877 and 1879 a number of particularly difficult punitive expeditions were mounted by the British against Xhosa, Zulu and Basuto tribes in the eastern area of the Cape of Good Hope and northern Natal, as well as against the Bapedi of Chief Sekhukhune in the northern Transvaal. In 1880 a medal was sanctioned for these campaigns, which was a new version of the South Africa Medal (1853) with minor alterations to the reverse design. While Army Order no. 103 of August 1880, which instituted the new South Africa Medal (1880), made no mention of any change in design of the 1854 medal, the year "1853" in the older medal's reverse exergue was replaced by a military trophy consisting of a Zulu ox-hide shield and four crossed assegais. The obverse of the new medal remained identical to that of the earlier medal.

A total of approximately 36,600 medals were awarded.

The campaigns were the Gaika-Gcaleka War from 26 September 1877 to 28 June 1878, the action against Chief Pokwane from 21 to 28 January 1878, the Griqua War from 24 April to 13 November 1878, the action against Chief Sekhukhune in late 1878, the Anglo-Zulu War from 11 January to 1 September 1879, the action against the uprising in Basutoland under Chief Moirosi from 25 March to 20 November 1879 and the second action against Chief Sekhukhune from 11 November to 2 December 1879.

King Cetshwayo kaMpande became King of the Zulus in 1873, but had been their effective ruler since 1856. Cetshwayo perceived the British as a threat to his rule and embarked upon a programme to equip his army with muskets, while inciting revolts among other tribes all along the British and Boer borders with the Zulus. Actions to counter these revolts and attacks escalated and led to reinforcements being sent from Britain over the course of 1878 to quell Cetshwayo and his uprisings.

The Gaika-Gcaleka War was a series of punitive campaigns which resulted from the attacks of the Gcaleka and Gaika tribes on a protected people, the Fengu. The campaigns against the insurgent Gcaleka and Gaika lasted some eight months and were carried out by local Colonial Forces as well as contingents of both the British Army and the Royal Navy serving ashore. The Gaika-Gcaleka War, which became known as the Ninth Cape Frontier War, ended with the annexation of the Transkei, homeland of the Gcaleka peoples, to the Cape of Good Hope.

Once the Gaika-Gcaleka War was settled, those forces not embroiled in the developing conflict in Zululand were employed against a Basuto tribe in the northern Transvaal, the Bapedi of Chief Sekhukhune, whose raids had begun to affect tribes under British protection. After an initial sally against his fortress at Thaba Ya Leolo in late 1878 had proved ineffective, a larger force overran his fortress in November 1879. The defenders of the fortress were killed almost to a man, largely by African soldiery.

Even though an independent commission had adjudged in 1878 that most of the Zulu claims to border territories were justified, the repeated infractions and raids which were either perpetrated or provoked by the Zulu subjects of Cetshwayo led to a decision by the British commissioner in the area, Sir Henry Bartle Frere, to finally reduce the independence of the Zulu Kingdom. He demanded a complete disarmament on the part of the Zulus and the imposition of a British residency. When Cetshwayo ignored this demand, British forces invaded Zululand in January 1879. After an initial British defeat in the Battle of Isandlwana, reinforcements ensured British victory in the Battle of Ulundi, after which most of the Zulu chiefs sought peace. Cetshwayo became a fugitive and was eventually captured and imprisoned in Cape Town.

Campaign medals are not listed by name in the order of wear prescribed by the British Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood, but are grouped together as taking precedence after the Queen's Medal for Chiefs and before the Polar Medals, in order of the date of the campaign for which awarded.

On 6 April 1952 the Union of South Africa instituted its own range of military decorations and medals. These new awards were worn before all earlier British decorations and medals awarded to South Africans, with the exception of the Victoria Cross, which still took precedence before all other awards. Of the British campaign medals applicable to South Africans, the South Africa Medal (1880) takes precedence as shown below. • Illustration — South Africa Medal (1853) • Illustration — South Africa Medal (1880) • Illustration — Cape of Good Hope General Service Medal • Preceded by the South Africa Medal (1853). • Succeeded by the Cape of Good Hope General Service Medal.

South Africa Medal is associated with United Kingdom.