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Cape Town Rifles ( Dukes )
Duke of Edinburgh's Own Rifles
“The Cape Town Rifles (Dukes), the second oldest regiment in the South African Army, was established in 1855 and has been fighting South Africa’s wars ever since.
The Regiment was founded on 28 November 1855, as the Cape Rifle Corps. It was the first volunteer unit in the Cape Colony.
On 30 September 1867, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh granted the CTVR the title the Duke of Edinburgh's Own Rifles, after it had formed a guard of honour for him during a visit to Cape Town. The nickname "the Dukes" appears to have come into use in the 1880s.
Active service and campaigns
On the outbreak of the 9th Frontier War in 1877, the Regiment volunteered for active service, and fielded a small contingent which served in the Transkei from October 1877 to January 1878. Hundreds of volunteers joined the Regiment, and it was reorganised in April 1878, into six companies.
Another contingent served in the Transkei from February to May 1879, to take the place of a British garrison unit which had been re-deployed to Zululand because of the Anglo-Zulu War.
Half the Regiment served in the Basutoland Gun War in Basutoland (now Lesotho) from September 1880 to March 1881, and it was there that the Regiment suffered its first casualties.
The Regiment continued to grow after this period of campaigning, and a new Scottish company was formed in 1882. It transferred to the newly formed Cape Town Highlanders in July 1885. In 1891, the Dukes took over the Cape Town Irish Volunteer Rifles, and in 1894 the Regiment formed a mounted company.
From February to August 1897, the Dukes were on active service in Bechuanaland, as part of a government military operation to capture dissident Tswana leaders who had taken refuge in the Langberg mountains
2nd Anglo-Bower War ---The Regiment played an active role in the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902). Initially, it was deployed to protect a long stretch of the railway line through the Western Cape. In May 1900, it was assigned to Lt Gen Sir Charles Warren's column, to recapture areas of Griqualand West from Boer and Cape Rebel forces. The Dukes' commanding officer, Lt Col William Spence, was killed in action during a Boer attack on the column's base on the farm Fabers Puts on 30 May 1900.
From June 1900 until the end of the war in May 1902, the Regiment was split up into small detachments, which manned outposts and blockhouses in the northern Cape.
A second battalion was formed in Cape Town in January 1901, and in October 1901 it became a separate unit and was renamed the Colonial Light Horse. It disbanded after the end of the war.
World war I -Like other CF units, the Dukes played a limited role in World War I, because the South African forces were restricted to operations in southern Africa. The Regiment was on garrison duty in Cape Town from October 1914 to January 1915, and was deployed in German South West Africa (now Namibia) from February to July 1915. It was used in a supporting role, and saw no action.
After the Dukes returned from GSWA, more than a hundred members volunteered for service in the new 1st SA Infantry Regiment, which served in Egypt and then on the Western Front in France. Some others volunteered for service in the British forces, and one "Duke", Andrew Beauchamp-Proctor, became a Royal Air Force pilot and finished the war as South Africa's most highly decorated serviceman ever.
World war II -- It was one of the first infantry battalions to go on active service in World War II, during the crucial Abyssinian Campaign. Its regimental bandsmen in their traditional 19th century scarlet tunics and white pith helmets have been a familiar sight at Cape Town’s ceremonial occasions for generations. The Dukes Band is probably the only military band in the Commonwealth ever to have had a Victoria Cross recipient for a bandmaster – Bandmaster Tommy Rendle VC, a hero of World War I, who served in this capacity for many years.
Post WW II --- When South Africa became a republic on 31 May 1961, the Duke of Edinburgh's Own Rifles were renamed the "Cape Town Rifles". The official title was changed again, in October 1966, to "Cape Town Rifles (Dukes)". The Regiment was granted the Freedom of the City of Cape Town on 10 October 1967. National service, i.e. conscription of all medically fit White men, was introduced in 1968.
Its best-known “trademark” is its traditional full dress of scarlet tunic and spiked white sun helmet, a familiar sight to generations of Capetonians, which is still worn today by the regimental band – which, unfortunately, is not taking place in this year’s tattoo.
The traditional nickname for members of the regiment is ‘Dukes’, because up to 1961, it was officially called the Duke of Edinburgh’s Own Rifles. When it reverted to its original name on the advent of the republic, it requested, and received, permission to retain ‘Dukes’ in brackets, in perpetual remembrance of the name under which it had campaigned in so many of our wars
Now known as The Chief Langalibalele Rifles
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Please add those that served in this Regiment
Some other SA regiments
Umvoti mounted rifles
Rand rifles
Natal mounted rifles
Border mounted rifles
Cape Town Highlanders pipe band
Reference
https://tattoomemories.wordpress.com/roll-call-cape-town-rifles-dukes/