[3] The South Africa Medal (1853) was awarded to surviving[2] participants in one or more of three campaigns in the eastern Cape of Good Hope and the Battle of Berea:[4] At the time these were known as the First, Second and Third Kaffir Wars.

[5] The 1834–36 campaign began with a response to a Xhosa cattle raid when, on 11 December 1834, a Cape Government Commando party killed a chief of high rank.

This incensed the Xhosa and an army of 10,000 men swept across the frontier into the Cape of Good Hope, pillaged and burned homesteads and killed all who resisted.

[5] The 1846–47 and 1851–53 campaigns were both fought against the Gaika tribe of King Sandile kaNgqika, who resented British land encroachments and had recently begun to receive fire-arms.

[5] On 26 February 1852 the troopship HMS Birkenhead struck a rock off what is now Gansbaai in the Western Cape while transporting reinforcing troops to Algoa Bay.

[2] In December 1852, a British force under Major-General Sir George Cathcart engaged in a punitive expedition against the Basuto of King Moshoeshoe I in an effort to recover stolen cattle.