TOPIC:

I'm listing the QSA of my great grandfather on the off-chance its out there somewhere. On the roll it's listed as 'returned 5-1-09.'

379 Pte. Percival Edward Harrison - Graaff-Reinet Town Guard
Sergt. Percival Edward Harrison - Cradock Town Guard
QSA with Cape Colony clasp.

Percival Edward Harrison fled the Transvaal with his wife and infant daughter when hostilities broke out in October 1899 for Port Elizabeth. At the time he was living in Delvers Street, Johannesburg. Percival had been injured and invalided out of the Royal Navy in 1894 thus he wasn't fit enough to join a fighting unit so he enlisted in the Graaff-Reinet Town Guard where he did see some skirmishing according to family oral history. He then joined the Cradock Town Guard as a sergeant. It would appear that Percival never received his QSA and it was returned in January 1909. On the off-chance that it is floating around somewhere out there I would really like to acquire it.

Cheers,

Mark

Mark,

I wish you well with this search and hope one day you can track this medal down.

Your post made me think about what happened to all those medals that were returned to the Mint. Some of the South African rolls have more returns than issues in some cases.

I had presumes that the medals would have been broken up and eventually the medals melted down again?

It is the case the issues of the QSA after about 1910ish has the naming style of the Great War and this would confirm the view that the medals were not retained for long.

Does anyone have a view on what happened to the returned medals?

Another question would be what percentage of medals were returned?

Regards
David

Thanks David, agree, there must have been huge quantities of medals returned, especially amongst the South African units. I have no idea why Percival's QSA never found him. He returned to his old abode as soon as he returned to the Rand. I wonder if he even knew that he had a QSA or perhaps he just wasn't interested.

My mother and uncle tell me that when they used to visit him he would always show my uncle his Boer War Webley and tell them stories about the war and his service in the RN, so he did talk about the war and presumably felt something about his service. I inherited my grandfather's medals (WWII) and his elder brother's WWI medals and had a keen interest in things military from a young age so I'm certain if there was a QSA I would have been shown it by my grandfather or one of my great aunts or uncles.

I have attached a copy of a letter from WO 100/49 concerning 1877-1879 South Africa Medals dated 27 March 1930 concerning returns and actually requesting the return of 36 medals back to the UDF that they had recently returned to the British authorities. I have a copy of the returns list. Who knows what happened to those medals? Two were actually Isandlwana casualties from the NMP. It would be interesting to try see if some of the medals listed are still around. Anyway, if they were still sending Zulu War medals back and forth in 1930 it gives me a little hope that somewhere out there Percival's QSA may survive.

Cheers,

Mark

Mark

I have a copy of the list of the 36 medals (WO100/48)with the following heading:
"List of 36 South Africa 1877-8-9 Medals and various Clasps returned by the C.I.G.S. Dept. of Defence Pretoria, South Africa. 23.5.1930."

I had assumed that the medals were returned to Britain at about this date and were destined for the melting pot. However, having now seen the letter dated 27 March 1930 that you showed, I wonder if this was a response to the letter and the medals were then being listed prior to returning them to South Africa? Can your records show whether or not the medals actually were returned to South Africa?

Regards
Brett

Brett,

I've not been able to ascertain if the medals were ever returned to South Africa. It might be an idea to try follow up on the list and see if we can find if any of these medals still survive. With you having a copy of this list I'm thinking you may have already been looking.

Cheers,

Mark

Hello

Returned medals were re-used by the Mint. One IY company of the 3rd contingent were all issued officialy re-named medals.

I have an IY QSA to one of the Middlesex companies whose QSA is officially re-named. I don't have the notes from the medal roll to say when it was issued.

Regards
Meurig