Sword used in the Anglo Boer war

British Sword
British Sword
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My son Marcel, was visiting a friend who has a number of large farms adjacent to each other in the Ulco district. These farms form a single entity, which is massif. Situated about 100 km from Kimberly.
During his visit, he took 2 day trip to wonder around in areas seldom, if ever, visited since the Anglo Boer war, which took place during 1899 to 1902.
During this trip he came across an old sword lying in the apparently same place since the 1899-1902 war.
The sword blade, was rusted. In some areas the rust went through the blade forming holes, the wood portion of the handle was badly rotted, the knuckle guard portion was remarkably in good condition.(I am not sure what type of steel this was made of). The steel of the blade however was of such a high quality, that when I tried to enlarge one of the rust holes I was unable to drill through the hole
I cannot help but wonder what happened, in the far past, for a soldier to abandon or discarded his weapon, did he die at that spot, or was he so badly wounded, that his fellow soldiers carried him to safety, without bothering to pick up the discarded weapon. Looks to me a good story to make a film out of it.
The accompanying photo is that of the sword after I mounted it in a block of wood. At present it is a garden ornament in my son’s garden.