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Auction: 20001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - conducted behind closed doors
Lot: 922

(x) Pair: Private F. Brown, 1st South African Infantry Brigade
British War and bilingual Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaves (Pte. F. Brown. 1st. S.A.I.), good very fine and better (2)

Fred Brown was born in 1893 at Oudshoorn, Western Cape, the son of Eveline Brown of 102 Mooi Street, Johannesburg. A married bootmaker, he was taken on strength by the 3rd S.A.I. and posted to 'A' Company on 10 September 1916 after spending 42 days beforehand being 'rendered dentally fit'. Posted to Kilindini in June 1916, he returned to Cape Town five months later having repeatedly suffered from malaria and was demobilised at Wynberg on 27 January 1917.

Unperturbed, Brown determined to return to military service and attested for the 1st South African Infantry on 17 April 1917. He served on the Western Front from 8 January 1918, but was captured on 23 March 1918 and detained as a P.O.W. at Camp No. 1654 Friedrichsfeld. Located sixty miles north of Cologne, the camp held 35,000 prisoners and was known as one of the 'better' P.O.W. camps in Germany with time and space being allocated to physical activity, laundry and shower rooms, and for the growing of vegetables. Repatriated on 2 January 1919, Brown returned home to South Africa and was discharged from the service at Maitland on 8 May 1919; sold with copied service record, his M.I.D. remains unconfirmed.


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Sold for
£160

Starting price
£40