THE CRIMEA MEDAL 1854-56 WITH SEBASTOPOL CLASP TO SERGEANT JOHN REED, 10TH HUSSARS, WHO SUBSEQUENTLY SAW SERVICE WITH THE CAPE MOUNTED RIFLES.

THE CRIMEA MEDAL 1854-56 WITH SEBASTOPOL CLASP TO SERGEANT JOHN REED, 10TH HUSSARS, WHO SUBSEQUENTLY SAW SERVICE WITH THE CAPE MOUNTED RIFLEMEN, 1856-1861, DURING THAT PERIOD SEEING SERVICE IN CAPE COLONY DURING WHAT WAS KNOWN AS THE CATTLE-KILLING MOVEMENT OF 1856-58.

CRIMEA MEDAL 1854-56, 1 clasp, Sebastopol (officially named, impressed in upper and lower case serifed capital letters and numbers: SERJt. J. REED. 10th. HUSSARS.).

Scattered surface contact marks, obverse and reverse, rim nicks and edge bruises (probably from contact with Reed’s Turkish Crimea Medal).

Medal accompanied by 4 pages copied discharge papers and copied extracts Crimea Medal roll, confirming medal and clasp.

John Reed was born in the parish of St George, Bristol, Somerset. He enlisted into the 10th Hussars at London on 8/7/1840. At the time of enlistment he was 18 years and 3 months old and gave his trade as Painter and Glazier. Reed was promoted Corporal, 24/12/1851, and Sergeant, 18/10/1853. Reed transferred to the Cape Mounted Rifles on 12/12/1856 and was discharged from the Cape Mounted Rifles at Canterbury on 24/7/1861, after 21 years and 30 days service with the colours. In addition to service at home, Reed saw service in the East Indies for 9 years and 8 months, the Crimea, for 1 year and 2 months, and the Cape of Good Hope for 4 years.

Discharge papers confirm that Reed was discharged as a result of having completed 21 years service, and at his own request, that his conduct whilst with the colours had been “good”, confirms that in addition to the Crimea Medal with Sebastopol clasp he was also entitled to the Turkish Crimea Medal and was probably entitled to a Long Service Medal, discharge papers stating “will probably receive the Good Conduct Medal and gratuity”.

At the time of Discharge Sergeant Reed gave his intended place of residence as being with “Mr W. Reed, Pill, near Bristol, Branch Pilot”.

The great cattle-killing movement of 1856-58 was a millennialist movement which began among the Xhosa tribe in 1856, and led them to destroy their own means of subsistence in the belief that it would bring about salvation by supernatural spirits.

In April 1856 the 16-year-old Xhosa prophetess Nongqawuse declared that she had received a message from the Xhosa people’s ancestors, promising deliverance from their hardships. She preached that the ancestors would return from the afterlife in huge numbers, drive all Europeans into the sea, and give the Xhosa bounteous gifts of horses, sheep, goats, dogs, fowls, and all manner of clothing and food in vast amounts. They would also restore the elderly to youth and would usher in a utopian era of prosperity. However, she declared that the dead ancestors would only enact this on condition that the Xhosa first destroyed all their means of subsistence. They needed to kill all of their cattle and burn all of their crops.

At first no one believed Nongquwuse’s prophecy. But when King Sarili kaHintsa began to kill his cattle, more and more people began to believe that Nongquwuse was anigqirha (diviner) who could communicate with their ancestors, at which point they too killed their cattle and destroyed their crops. The cult grew and built up momentum, sweeping across the eastern Cape. The government authorities of the Cape Colony, fearing chaos, famine and economic collapse, desperately appealed in vain to the Xhosa to ignore the prophecies, and arrested Nongqawuse herself.

The return of the ancestors was predicted to occur on 18 February 1857. The Xhosa, especially the King, Sarhili, heeded the demand to destroy food sources and clothes and enforced it on others throughout the country. When the day came, the Xhosa nation waited en masse for the momentous events to occur, only to be bitterly disappointed. With no means of subsistence, famine set in.

The cattle killings continued into 1858, leading to the starvation of thousands. Disease was also spread from the cattle killings.

Total catastrophe was only averted when the Cape Colony authorities provided the destitute Xhosa people with food, blankets and other relief.