south african display - British & Commonwealth Military Badge Forum

medalman90 · #1 10-11-11, 05:40 AM

My SA collection is very small, but its a work in progress. In here i have a South Africa service medal. It is attributed to a Thomas Kraai, 25th battalion, Native Military Corps, serial #10525. He enlisted new years eve 1940, and was promoted to Sargent November 23rd, 1942. this is all i know about Tom, if anyone else can shed some light on him. that would be cool.

link to display: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...type=3&theater

Arthur R · #2 10-11-11, 11:14 AM

Hi Medalman90, welcome to the forum

The Native Military Corps was a non-combat branch, its members being mustered as drivers, cooks, orderlies etc. Sgt Kraai was probably attached to a combat unit or a headquarters in one of those capacities. As 23 November 1942 was shortly after the battle of El Alamein, he may have been in that battle.

Sgt Kraai's service record card ought to be in the Defence Force archives in Pretoria. There are accredited researchers who have access to the archives and can search for these records. If you're interested, I can give you the e-mail address of one of them.

medalman90 · #3 10-11-11, 11:08 PM

Hey Author, thank you for the info. through my search for more information i did find researchers, but by the time everything was said and done, it was gonna cost me a little more then i can afford at the moment. I also found out that he wasn't KIA. Google didnt help to much either. It never said anything specific about the Native Military Corps or the Non European Service. the file card i do have from him mentions something about the 1st battalion as well as the 25th.

Brian Conyngham · #4 11-11-11, 07:07 PM

Hi

Here is a link you might find interesting?:

http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol101jm.html

Regards
Brian

medalman90 · #5 16-11-11, 07:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Conyngham

Hi

Here is a link you might find interesting?:

http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol101jm.html

Regards
Brian

hey Brian, thanks for the link. i found a similar link about someone from the same unit who was taken prisoner and escaped and blew up a ship. he was recommenced for a VC but given the military medal.