12th Regiment Buttons found in South Africa

Seldom do I have the opportunity to purchase older items relating to the Suffolk Regiment (or the 12th Regiment, or the 12th (East Suffolk) Regiment - as it was known in various periods of its past) as there is great competition for pre-Boer War items amongst fellow collectors, but a chance purchase of three 12th Regiment buttons recently had got me searching areas of Regimental History that I’ve not really delved into before.

Three small brass buttons of a similar size were offered for sale which I was fortunate enough to procure. The seller noted that these were dug up at East Cape, South Africa in 1975 and they are in remarkably good condition, though the climate and humidity has a lot to do with their preservation, but the question is, to what exact period do they belong to?

Whilst the seller recorded them as belonging to the period of the Ninth Frontier War (1877-78), I find this a little unlikely as the 2nd (Reserve) Battalion were in India at that time having been there since 1864 and the 1st Battalion were in Afghanistan where they were earning for themselves the Battle Honour of ‘Afghanistan 1878-80.’

My thoughts are that they go back to a much earlier period of 1851-53 when they were in South Africa during the Eighth Kaffir War or the Xhosa Wars as they are now often referred.

The Reserve Battalion - or ‘2/12th’ as they were officially designated, had been fighting in South Africa for 18-months when they reached international fame after a draft of men coming from England to join them, stood firm on the deck of their sinking troopship, H.M.S. Birkenhead, when she was wrecked upon rocks in February 1852. They allowed the women and children to be rescued first, giving rise to the famous phrase (over sixty years before the Titanic sank and it received international notoriety).

When the Birkenhead was found by divers in the 1980s looking for gold, it treasures yielded up a quantity of Twelfth Regiment items including numerous pewter buttons, (possibly a supply for the Regimental Sutler) for the rank and file’s scarlet tunics, so if these buttons are of the same period, then being made of brass indicates that they were possibly from an officers tunic?

It is recorded that officers buttons started to have laurels added to them in the late 1850s and a surviving officers tunic in a collection in New Zealand from the Māori Wars of the 1860s supports this. Buttons I have to admit, are not my thing and limited investigation has pointed me to a similar design of button worn by the 19th Regiment of Foot (Green Howards) by their officers between 1825 and 1855 on their jackets, with a smaller version being worn until 1881.

Appreciating that individual regiments had their own timelines for the wearing of such items, and assuming that this could have been similar in the Twelfth Regiment, then this supports the sellers theory that this was a officers complete cuff (three buttons being worn one above the other in a doublet style). This would certainly fit the timescale and the material, before more elaborate buttons with laurels appeared a few years later.

Does anyone know anything more? There must be button collectors out who could hopefully narrow down the timeline to their use in service, so if there are those of you out there who know of such things, please do get in touch.