Over the last 57 years of me collecting military memorabilia, family, friends and fellow collectors, have asked me how I started, what got me interested in it. I honestly don’t know, but can only imagine it was the photos of uniforms I saw in the many military books I took out the libraries, saw the badges on the uniforms and wanted some for myself. I started collecting military items at the age of ten, way back in 1967, by asking anyone that looked old enough to have served in WW2 for any badges, medals, buttons, helmets, webbing, etc. When, a couple of years later, I started a paper round, delivering newspapers for the Central News Agency it gave me the opportunity to meet more of the older chaps who had served, and to whom I was now delivering newspapers, and my collection grew steadily. They enjoyed telling me war stories and I enjoyed going back to see what badges they had scratched out since we last spoke. The paper rounds also helped in that I was now getting some pocket money and would use portion of it to take the train from Muizenberg to Cape Town to visit the Military Museum at the Castle and the flea market on the Grand Parade, in front of the City Hall, every Saturday. The SA Navy Officer in charge of the Military Museum was Mac Bissett. I don’t remember his rank at that stage, but he retired as a Commander and was awarded the Southern Cross Medal for his outstanding service to the South African Navy. A thorough gentleman, who would take the time to walk with me through the museum, point out interesting things, giving me more information about them, and sometimes sit with me in his office and show me new items that had been donated but were not yet on display. He would call me, at the age of 12, “Mr. MacKenzie”, and still does whenever we meet. I think he provided the most encouragement to my collecting hobby. One of his staff members, an old Pioneer who had served in WW2 and worked as a guide at the museum, was always amazed that I could tell the medals just from their ribbon colours, at such a young age, and was forever trying to catch me out by asking, “What medal is that one? And keep your distance so you can’t read the labels!!” He never caught me out and I think I gained his respect for being a keen young collector. He would always give Mac Bissett a call to his office to let him know I had arrived, once again. Every Saturday Harry Fynn (Finn?) would be on the flea market at the Grand Parade in Cape Town, opposite the Town Hall, in his beat up old Kombi panel van, with a row of medals across the dashboard, ribbons fading in the sun. He always had badges and medals for sale and I never had enough money to buy everything I wanted. Harry once allowed me to pay off a German SS metal cap badge over 3 weeks. I can clearly remember the badge cost R5.00. Today they are in excess of US$800.00. A good investment!! At the age of 12 I got my first German Iron Cross, in near mint condition, in its presentation case, as a birthday present from my Mom. She took me to Cape Town to go look for a suitable gift, found it at City Coins, and bought it from Natalie Jaffe, who recently passed away after running the business for so many years. As I grew older my interest in collecting focussed more on the paratroopers, special forces and commandos and I started trading off much of what I had collected over the years, with other collectors and dealers, to get those items. I was called up for my National Service with the South African Air Force in July 1976 and lost a little interest in collecting. I was seeing too many badges and uniforms on a daily basis. I had wanted to go to the Army, like most of my friends, but had no say in the matter. With my interest in the paratroopers I decided I wanted to do the parachute course as well, but, a while after finishing my instructors course I was posted out to Ysterplaat Air Force Base, had a motorcycle accident a few months later and damaged my leg badly, so much so that I would never be able to do the jump course. Years later I managed to sneak a water jump. Some paratrooper friends of mine were going for the annual 44 Parachute Brigade “fun jump”. That year it was a water jump and I decided I would be able to do that, a nice soft landing in the water. It was fantastic. I was only caught out after the jump, while climbing out the dam, by a high ranking officer I knew, and who knew I had not done the jump course, but he let it slide.
Roodeplaat Dam 31 October 1992
With me not being able to do the parachute course I concentrated my collecting on badges, wings and uniforms of the paratrooper forces and Special Air Service of the world and British Commando badges. I also built up a large library of books on these forces. After the second book on parachute badges and wings, by Bob Bragg and Roy Turner, was printed in 1985, I saw that my collection of over 2000 parachute wings from nearly 100 countries, was not even half way to completion and there were new wings coming out all the time. I decided then to specialise in collecting these badges and wings, and medals – by now, to just the South African, Rhodesian, South West African, British and Commonwealth countries, and that is where I am now. Whether you specialise in one area of collecting or not, you will always find something else that catches your eye, and may start off on a “side line”, as I call it. My side lines are the Fairbairn Sykes Commando daggers – of which I have 25 variations – different manufacturers and markings, Bowie knives and German WW2 Paratrooper badges. I also have a large collection of Rhodesian medals and South African Naval Forces badges, cap tallies and medals, from its creation up to the modern days. Somethings I detest are fakes and people who make them. I guarantee every item on my website is original unless otherwise stated. The only fakes/reproductions/copies, or whatever you want to call them, are the few that were in collections that I have bought in. These are always marked in their description as “FAKE”. If it is a cloth badge I also write FAKE on the back of the badge with a black marker pen. I don’t like to hear when a collector has been caught with a fake and wasted his money. A free “service” to any of my customers/collector friends, is that I will help to prevent you wasting your money on fakes. Anytime you want to buy a badge from another source, and are not sure whether it is original or not, you are welcome to send me an email with photos of the back and front of the item. I will never call myself an expert, but have a good knowledge on badges and medals of Southern Africa and Rhodesia, and many other countries. To new collectors, I hope you find something on my website that you have been looking for and that we can also become collector friends. James D.N. MacKenzie
Cape Times 18 June 1992