Robert BODLEY

As a young man, Robert Bodley settled in the Witwatersrand region. In the Boer War, he was one of the bodyguards of the British commander-in-chief Lord Roberts. After the war, Bodley lived in Germiston in the Gauteng province. In 1906, he joined the 5th Mounted Rifles, where he became a well-reputed marksman and was selected for the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. In 1914 Bodley served as a Captain in the 8th South African Horse fighting against the Germans in East Africa since May 1916. He returned to the 5th Mounted Rifles and competed in his second Olympics at Antwerpen in 1920.

Bodley also received the King’s Army Best Shot Medal in 1925. In 1922, he was engaged in the Battle of Ellis Park, the abolition of a revolt of white miners against mine owners. In the 1940s he returned to the army as a Colonel and was commissioned with the training of future South African marksmen. In 1953, he was awarded the Coronation Medal.