CMR, noun

Forms:
Also C.M.R.
Origin:
Initial letters of Cape Mounted Rifles, Cape Mounted Riflemen.
historical
1. An imperial cavalry unit formed out of the Cape Regiment in 1827.
Note:
Originally made up of Khoikhoi soldiers serving under seconded British officers, and later consisting of both White and Khoikhoi soldiers, this unit was disbanded in 1870.
1844 E.L. Kift Letter. 12 JuneForty men & Lt. Campbell of the C.M.R. are to proceed to Natal via Port Elizabeth in a few days.
1971 N. Orpen in Std Encycl. of Sn Afr. III. 33For reasons of economy the Imperial C.M.R. had been recalled to England in 1870, with only ten Coloured members left, all the rest being White volunteers, who were disbanded...The Colonial C.M.R. were organized with the Government only supplying arms and ammunition initially.
2. A colonial regiment, formed in 1878 out of the Frontier Armed and Mounted Police, and functioning as both a military and a police force; members of this unit, collectively.
Note:
This regiment merged into the South African Mounted Riflemen in 1913.
1880 Alice Times 30 Jan.The Artillery Troop of the CMR are to be stationed here.
c1880 F.W. Damant in Looking Back (Hist. Soc. of Port Elizabeth, Apr. 1984) 21Poor Capt Nettleton cried when he found that all but 3 men out his troop of 60, mostly all Grahamstown were killed. The C.M.R. and infantry had to fight to get the bodies of our killed and wounded.
1882 C. Du Val With Show through Sn Afr. I. 170At King Williamstown, which we reached after nightfall, we met a wing of the Cape Mounted Rifles, or C.M.R. as they are more familiarly called.
1891 T.R. Beattie Ride through Transkei 14The C.M.R. do police duty here, but the general complaint of Europeans is that there is not a sufficient number of men to deal with such an extensive district.
1897 E. Prov. Herald 19 Feb.Captain Woon, with a small patrol of 80 C.M.R. and some police, have succeeded in locating Galishwe in the Langberg.
1900 E.E.K. Lowndes Every-Day Life 82About once a week the C.M.R. (Cape Mounted Rifles) ride around their district to see if the farmers have had any cases of sheep-stealing or other trouble with the natives.
1913 Nongqai 12 Nov. 16The Cape Mounted Riflemen, better known as the C.M.R., held the distinction of being the oldest permanent Colonial Force in the Empire...Under the title of the Armed and Mounted Police, then as the F.A.M.P., and finally as the C.M.R., the regiment has had over half a century’s fighting.
1947 C.R. Prance Antic Mem. 3The troop had only one officer as yet, a bright young scallywag from the old C.M.R. of gallant memory, and the job would have been tough for a larger force of Regular infantry.
1969 I. Vaughan Last of Sunlit Yrs 48The three drums..had once been the proud possession of the old Cape Mounted Rifles, disbanded at Union...I thought of their past in the military barracks in King William’s Town — once the headquarters of the old C.M.R.
1989 B. Godbold Autobiography. 13Small garrisons of Cape Mounted Riflemen (the renowned C.M.R.)..were stationed at villages to police the districts.
3. Special Combination CMR beetle [see quotation 1961], the garden pest Mylabris oculata of the Meloidae.
1949 L. Hunter Afr. Dawn 191Then there were the thousands of ‘C.M.R.’ beetles that settled on the plants and devoured the leaves and flowers.
1955 J.B. Shephard Land of Tikoloshe 104The brightly coloured insect known as the C.M.R. beetle — so called because it colours correspond to those of a famous corps, the Cape Mounted Rifles.
1961 D. Bee Children of Yesterday 9The insects were of the same species, black-and-yellow, and were called C.M.R. beetles after the Cape Mounted Riflemen of long ago who had borne those colours.
1963 S.H. Skaife Naturalist Remembers 23C.M.R., or blister beetles, are poisonous — they contain a virulent poison called cantharadin.
1985 F.C. De Moor in Scholtz & Holm Insects 260The blister, oil and CMR beetles, as they are commonly known, are small to medium-sized beetles.
1985 F.C. De Moor in Scholtz & Holm Insects 262Members of the Mylabrini (e.g. Mylabris oculata, the CMR beetle), which feed on the petals of flowers, are considered pests in ornamental gardens.
1994 S. Afr. Garden & Home Sept. 119Nothing seems to put an end to those CMR beetles that love the roses.
An imperial cavalry unit formed out of the Cape Regiment in 1827.
A colonial regiment, formed in 1878 out of the Frontier Armed and Mounted Police, and functioning as both a military and a police force; members of this unit, collectively.
Special Combination CMR beetle [see quotation 1961],the garden pest Mylabris oculata of the Meloidae.
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