TOPIC:

While reading Mike's post on one of his latest acquisitions to the Irish Guards,I was interested by his comment "One of the things that I started many years ago was to obtain at least one QSA medal from every British Regular Army Unit that served in South Africa....."
Quite a task which Mike has nearly accomplished.
I got to thinking if there was a definitive list to show the rarity in terms of QSA's issued to the British Regular Army Units that served, or is it a case of looking through the WO rolls?

Cheers
Paul

Good Morning Paul.....

Most of the information I have found is by keeping my eyes open and reading a lot of articles published in many many different locations.....

I was sent one time many years ago a list of all units which I have found out was wrong in a number cases and have been put right by fellow collectors....

Some numbers have been published for example the Cavalry Lists of Kevin Asplin and also other people who have specialized and collected to different units and published.....

Most of all and it has only been since the invention of the internet forums like this one, so Thank you David......

Mike

Thanks Mike,

I just wondered it someone had published a definitive list, maybe one day it might happen.

Cheers
Paul

QSAMIKE wrote: Good Morning Paul.....

Most of the information I have found is by keeping my eyes open and reading a lot of articles published in many many different locations.....

I was sent one time many years ago a list of all units which I have found out was wrong in a number cases and have been put right by fellow collectors....

Some numbers have been published for example the Cavalry Lists of Kevin Asplin and also other people who have specialized and collected to different units and published.....

Most of all and it has only been since the invention of the internet forums like this one, so Thank you David......

Mike

Hello Paul

Good question and when The Register is complete then I will have all the info to hand to produce such a list. Mike's post on his Irish Guards QSA which then quoted numbers for 4th Hussars QSAs issued got me thinking on this - a definitive list will not be easy.

For instance - with the cavalry for which a QSA list has been published By Kevin Asplin, a number of men from all regiments served with the Remounts and are only on the Remounts roll. Therefore, numbers taken from Kevin's work will be adjusted upwards when all the Remount roll pages have been databased.

For example WO100/234pp64-68 contains approximately 90 names of 4th Hussars soldiers who served with No 2 Remount Depot. On the regimental roll of WO100/114 Mike quoted 44 names - some of these will be on the Remount roll, but this leaves about 46 names not on the regimental. Some of these men served with other units - so could be on that regiment's roll (but named to 4th Hussars maybe).

The point of all this is that I reckon the number of 4th Hussar QSA named medals is significantly greater than 44. From what I have seen (and it is a slim sample admittedly) regular soldiers who served with Remounts had their medals named to their regiment.

Regards
Meurig

coldstream wrote: Thanks Mike,

I just wondered it someone had published a definitive list, maybe one day it might happen.

Cheers
Paul

QSAMIKE wrote: Good Morning Paul.....

Most of the information I have found is by keeping my eyes open and reading a lot of articles published in many many different locations.....

I was sent one time many years ago a list of all units which I have found out was wrong in a number cases and have been put right by fellow collectors....

Some numbers have been published for example the Cavalry Lists of Kevin Asplin and also other people who have specialized and collected to different units and published.....

Most of all and it has only been since the invention of the internet forums like this one, so Thank you David......

Mike

Hi Meurig.....

I agree with you that there may be many more who served with the Remounts or in other units but I have not see very many named for instance 4th Hussars, in fact I cannot remember when I saw one..... I have seen a couple of cavalry QSA's that were named for instance to one unit, when their original unit was something else...... Yet the medal was named to the unit that they served with in SA.....

Unless someone sat down and counted every name and checked that there was no duplication I don't think that there would be an accurate list.....

Mike

When it comes to South African Colonials and the irregular units raised in South Africa, the situation is a nightmare. Enthusiastic soldiers changed their units more than once, and, as far I can judge, there was no consistent way of naming their medals (e.g. to the unit they first or last served in). For example, I have a QSA to a man who served successively in the East Griqualand Mounted Rifles, Thorneycroft's Mounted Infantry, Imperial Light Horse, and East Griqualand Mounted Rifles. His medal is named to the ILH.

Brett