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Hi




One of my favourite Boer War DCM groups is the one to 74816 Sgt James Tatton, 15th Coy SD, RGA with medals earned under 4 Monarchs.

He was wounded in a howitzer explosion near Balmoral on 18 July 1901. This RGA Company lost two killed and 10 wounded in this incident. Sgt Tatton was the senior NCO of the Coy present and his brother, 8519 Cpl John Tatton was one of the two men killed.

The following extract from With "The Buffs" in South Africa" /i] gives details.

I think it is very likely that the DCM was awarded for his actions after the explosion.

Henk

Hi
When I joined two photocopies I skipped a line!
Here is the correct version:

Henk

Hi again

When replacing Tatton's paperwork in his file I saw that I had missed a previous reference to his abilities.



This account casts some doubt about the quality of the 6" howitzer shells : one failed to explode in Nov 1900 and one prematurely exploded a year later, destroying the gun. One would not know what other "miss-fires" there were over a period of time....

Henk

Henk,

What a superb group!

Many thanks for sharing this.

Mark