Cape Mounted Riflemen

Authors and Contributors this page: T.F. Mills

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Page created 1 May 2004. Corrected and updated 14.04.2005

Disclaimers

	Cape Mounted Riflemen [1827-1870] and Cape Corps [1781-1991]
cap badge, 1963-2000	Cape Colony / South Africa

Titles & Lineage

History

Battle Honours

Colours, Standards & Guidons

Uniforms & Badges

Colonels-in-Chief

Colonels

Biography & Gallantry Awards
Traditions
Alliances
Associations, Forums, Re-Enactors
Museums, Monuments, Memorials
Bibliography

How to find information about individuals who served in this corps


	1781	Corps Bastaard Hottentoten organised in Dutch service at Cape Town as a Hottentot (i.e. Coloured) corps (ca. 400 men)
	1782	disbanded

	1793	Corps van Pandoeren re-formed at Cape Town; also known as Pandour Corps
	1795	disbanded

	1796.05	Hottentot Corps re-formed in British service as a Hottentot (i.e. Cape Coloured, or Khoikhoi) corps with HQ at Wynberg (ca. 300 men)
	1798?	HQ moved to Hout Bay
	1801.06.25	Cape Regiment reorganised as a British imperial regt (ten coys), retaining all personnel of the Hottentot corps
	1803.02.21	Corps Vrye Hottentotten reorganised as a Dutch colonial unit
	180u	Hottentot Ligte Infanterie
	1806.10	The Cape Regiment reorganised as a British colonial unit (British officers and Coloured ORs) at Cape Town; also known by names of colonels
	180u	troop of light cavalry raised
	1817.09.24	partially reduced (order to disband ignored or rescinded), retaining two small units (ca. 200 men) for defence of Eastern Frontier:
		Cape Cavalry, one troop of dragoons Cape Light Infantry
	1820	Cape Corps
	1827.11.25	Cape Mounted Riflemen [Imperial] cavalry wing disbanded and corps reorganised as battalion of mounted infantry
	1850	some personnel effectively mutinied by joining Coloured rebellion in eastern Cape; regiment subsequently reconstituted as mixed White and Coloured
	1854?	recruitment of Coloureds ceased
	1870	disbanded (name and traditions appropriated 1878 by another Cape Mounted Riflemen), and military service abolished for Coloureds

	1915.12	Cape Corps single bn raised in Cape Province in Union Defence Force as Coloured infantry
		1st Battalion, redesignation 1916 of original bn 2nd Battalion, raised 1916; disbanded 1918
	1919	disbanded

	1940.05.08	The Cape Corps reconstituted (partly from the Association of the 1915-18 corps) as a non-combattant Coloured service corps with a Pioneer Battalion and five motor transport companies; later expanded to include Motorized Infantry Battalions, PW Guard Battalions, PW Escort Battalions and Infantry Battalions, with a peak strength of 23,000
	1942.10.13	absorbed Indian and Malay Corps
	1945	disbanded

	1947	Cape Corps reconstituted in Permanent Force as a Coloured service corps
	1948	disbanded by ruling National Party which abolished military service for Coloureds

	1963	Cape Corps reconstituted at Estevier as a non-combattant Coloured service corps; considered to be successor to all previous Coloured Cape corps beginning in 1796
	1972	transferred to Permanent Force
	1973	South African Cape Corps Service Battalion
	1975	South African Cape Corps Battalion Defence Act amended to give Coloureds "same status" as whites, combattant status restored, and first Coloured officers were commissioned
	1979-1989	South African Cape Corps corps expanded as more Coloureds volunteered:
		1st Battalion, redesignation of original battalion 2nd Battalion, raised Dec.1984 3rd Battalion at Kimberley, raised 1989 Maintenance Unit, formed 1979 from personnel of original service battalion SACC School SACC School for Junior Leaders, formed ?; closed ca. 1989
	1990?	9th South African Infantry reduced to single battalion?
	1991?	disbanded


		Hottentot Regiments at the Cape during the First British Occupation, 1795-1803, by J. de Villiers (Military History Journal - Vol 3 No 5)
		The South African Cape Corps in Defence of Slavery, (Dawn in DISA: South Africa's Struggle for Democracy: Anti-Apartheid Periodicals, 1960-1994)

	*Regulars:*
		[1st Battalion] [1796-1870, 1915-1919, 1979?-2000?]
		2nd Battalion [1916-1918, 1984-2000?]
		3rd Battalion [1989-2000?]


	Cape of Good Hope¹ The Great War²: Kilimanjaro, Behobeho, Nyangao, East Africa 1916-17, East Africa 1917-18³, Megiddo, Nablus, Palestine 1918 1. awarded ca. 1841 for service in the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Kaffir wars. 2. awarded 1926 to 1st Cape Corps after it had disbanded. 3. awarded separately to 2nd Cape Corps. Note: the 1915 Cape Corps did not inherit the battle honour of the CMR


		CMR (1842?): The regimental had the unusual distinction of being presented a cavalry Royal Standard (crimson silk) and a cavalry Guidon (green). The white Horse appears in the first and fourth canton of both. The central device on the Standard is the Union Rose, Thistle and Shamrock surmounted by a Crown, and below a scroll inscribed DIEU ET MON DROIT. The regimental title appears in the second and third cantons. The central device on the Guidon is the regimental title on a crimson field surrounded by Union wreath and surmounted by a Crown. The Union Rose, Thistle and Shamrock appears in the second and third cantons. The single battle honour appears below the wreath. Cape Corps (1916): Buff Regimental Colour with blue figure of Hope as central device. King's Colour has same central device.
		*Note:* for record of Colours see the battalion histories.

Badges:

1827-1870?: shako plate inscribed with monogram CMR.
1915-1945: Crest of the Arms of the Cape of Good Hope Colony (the figure of Hope with her left hand resting on an anchor, and her right hand or elbow resting on Table Mountain), with below a scroll inscribed CAPE CORPS. (Several variant designs of cap badges existed both in 1915-19 and in 1940-45.) The figure of Hope appeared on gorgets of the Dutch Cape regiments up to 1795.
1963-2000: Crest of the Arms of the Cape of Good Hope Colony , with below a scroll inscribed FORTITER ET FIDELITER.

Cape of Good Hope Colony - Kaapkolonie, by Ralf Hartemink (International Civic Heraldry)

Uniform:

1796-1801: blue jacket; facings: red; knee-length breeches; headdress: round hat.
1808-1870: green jacket; facings: black; pewter buttons in three rows; headdress: shako with green plume; black accoutrements.
Cav Troop: green; facings: black; green pantaloons with black stripe; black cords; black accoutrements & sabretache; headdress: black shako with green plume and white stripe at top and white-black-white cockade.


cap badge 1915-1919		cap badge 1940-1945


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	Commanding Officer:
	1796	Lt. J. Campbell

	1801	Lt-Col. Fielder King

	1806.10	Donald McDonald
	1811.04.27	Lt-Gen. George Moncrieffe
	1813.10.21	G.S. Fraser

	1830	Maj. Cox
	1838	Maj. W. Burney, KH
	1839	Lt-Gen. Sir Henry Somerset, KCB, KH [also 25th Foot; C-in-C Bombay 1855-60]
	1850	Lt-Col. Sutton
	1859	Lt-Col. George Staunton
	1866	Lt-Col. L.E. Knight

	1915	1st Bn: Lt-Col. G.A. Morris, CMG, DSO
		2nd Bn: Maj. C.N. Hoy, DSO

	1940	Col. C.N. Hoy, DSO

	1946


		Cape Mounted Riflemen WO97 Soldiers Documents at PRO, by Brendan Stebbings


	Motto:	Fortiter et fideliter (1963?)
	Nicknames:
	Anniversaries:
	Freedoms:
	Marches:
	Musicians:
	*Mascot:*
	*Miscellaneous Tradition Links:*


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	Regimental Journal:


	Full Histories:
		Lucas, Thomas J. *Camp life and sport in South Africa : experiences of Kaffir warfare with the Cape Mounted Rifles*. London : Chapman and Hall, 1878.
		Lucas, Thomas J. *Camp life and sport in South Africa : experiences of Kaffir warfare with the Cape Mounted Rifles. Facsim. ed. Johannesburg : Africana Book Society, 1975. (Africana reprint library* ; v. 2) ISBN: 0949973106
		Young, P. J. *Boot and saddle : a narrative record of the Cape Regiment, the British Cape Mounted Riflemen, the Frontier Armed Mounted Police, and the Colonial Cape Mounted Riflemen*. Cape Town : Maskew Miller, 1955.
		Difford, Ivor D. The Story of the 1st Cape Corps (1915 - 1919). Cape Town : Hortons Ltd, 1921.
		Gleeson, Ian. The unknown force : Black, Indian and Coloured soldiers through two world wars. Rivonia : Ashanti Pub., 1994. (ISBN: 1874800561)

	Short Histories:
		Cannon, Richard. History of the Cape Mounted Riflemen : with a brief account of the colony of the Cape of Good Hope : illustrated with drawings of the standards and the costume of an officer of the corps. London : J.W. Parker, 1842. (Historical records of the British army)

	Articles:
		Wood, L.L.F. "The Imperial Cape Mounted Riflemen," The coelacanth: the journal of the Border Historical Society, v. 28, no. 2 (1990), p.34-37.
		Tylden, G. "The Cape Mounted Riflemen in the period 1852 - 1870," Africana notes and news, v. 6, no. 2 (Mar 1949).
		Tylden, G. "CMR uniforms in pictures. Facts about the Cape Mounted Riflemen." Africana notes and news, v. 2, no. 2 (Mar 1945)
		Webb, D. E. "James Murray Grant and the 'Historical record of the Cape Mounted Riflemen'," Bulletin of the South African Library, v. 42, no. 2 (Dec. 1987)
		de Villiers, J. "Die Cape Regiment 1806 - 1817," In: Argief-jaarboek vir Suid-Afrikaanse Geskiedenis. (1989), deel I, p. 220, 221.
		Cherry, Janet. "A feather in the cap? : the South African Cape Corps, ruling class ideology and community opposition," [bibliographic details?]

	Manuscripts & Archives:
		Tylden, G. "History of Cape Mounted Riflemen". Manuscript. South African National Museum of Military History.
		[Records of the Cape Mounted Riflemen], Amathole Museum [formerly Kaffrarian Museum], King William's Town, South Africa.