(From a newspaper article from, “HET SUID-WESTERN, DONDERDAG 31 JULIE, 1969.”)
GEORGE - Mr. B. L. (Bertram Lilburne) Cairncross, who lives near Victoria Bay has one of the biggest and most famous private collections of medals in the world, Het Suid-Western learnt this week in an interview with him.
(I'm assuming the reference to 'George' at the beginning of the sentence refers to the place rather than the name of a person. The place George is in South Africa's Western Cape.)
These range from the Matabele War of 1896 to the Korean War of 1950-52. Mr. Cairncross also has a remarkable collection of tortoises. Mr. Cairncross, who celebrated his 70th birthday this week, is a man who prepared for his retirement years before he reached that milestone.
The Cairncross family medals are a display well worth seeing. And what is more, these 73 medals were all earned by men and women with the family name.
Mr. Cairncross received his own medal from the 1914-1918 war in February 1922.
Later he was given a medal with the letters C.C.C.C. and becoming intrigued while trying to find out about it.
So the medal awarded to a soldier in the Cape Colony Cycle Corps, began his collection which now runs into hundreds.
He is in touch with collectors and dealers the world over and adds to his collection whenever he can.
He has exhibited some examples of his collection and by so doing, he learned that his Cairncross medals are the largest known family collection in the world.
Mr. Cairncross has many other hobbies to keep his days fully occupied. "There isn't enough time in each day for the things I want to do," he told Het Suid-Western this week.
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