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Hi Berenice, David and Brett

Thanks for the wealth of detail submitted on the action and on Sgt Evans : this adds valuable material to my files.




Trooper Aldwinckle died 4 weeks after the affair, after having his arm amputated. One can hardly think of what he must have suffered in that period.

Evans' DCM, as so ably discussed by Brett, has been the subject of a number of misunderstandings and misrepresentations in print.

The naming style on his DCM, however, also opens an interesting avenue for speculation!










When I received the DCM group to Sgt J H Evans it struck me that the DCM was not impressed but was engraved in the "Officers/RE/Cavalry Style” (as found on QSA’s) to Sjt. J.H. EVANS Dist. Police.

The Evans DCM was gazetted on 26 July 1901 (p4919) as "Sergeant Evans, District Police" and I expected the DCM to have been impressed SERJT:/SERGT: EVANS DIST./DISTRICT POLICE. I have 3 other Boer War DCM's in my collection where the gazetted naming, irrespective of wrongly spelled surnames or missing initials, were impressed on the DCM. In addition, it is noted in Abbott & Tamplin (DCM chapter, p91) that “only a very few early Boer War DCM's were engraved”.




However, the DCM Submission to His Majesty (WO 146/1, p404&405, dated 15 July 1901) suggests possible reasons for the different naming.
• His entry was typed as "District Police, Serjeant Evans", with a hand-written addition "James Herbert" in front of his surname: this probably explains the presence of his initials on the DCM.
• Smith and Evans’ DCM’s are the only two for South Africa in the submission(it can also be noted that no MiD was published for these two in the LG): the other 11 recipients all served in China in 1900. It could well be that this batch of 13 DCM’s were “prepared” differently from the almost 2100 other Boer War DCM’s and were engraved and not impressed.

To test the validity of the last statement I hope that anybody who has handled or seen any of the China 1900 DCM awards, could comment as to whether the naming was impressed or engraved.

Any other comments would also be very welcome.

Henk

Henk

I have no useful comment to add to the puzzle about the naming of Evans' DCM, but I must thank you for adding more interesting information about this medal as well as to the Mahlabatini story.

The two Natal Police DCM's awarded for the Mahlabatini incident are also remarkable for perhaps being the wrong kind of DCM. The DCM (Dominion & Colonial) (MYB42) was instituted in 1895 specifically for men in the Colonial forces and it was the 'Natal' version of this medal that could, or should have been awarded to Evans and Smith. In fact, only one such medal was awarded during the Boer War:
Trooper Frederick Charles Farmer, Weenen Troop, Natal Carbineers, was recommended for the VC by General Buller for saving the life of his squadron commander, Lieutenant McKay, during the Battle of Colenso. He received the DCM (Natal) instead.
All the other DCM's awarded to Colonials during the Boer War were the Imperial version.

Regards
Brett

Brett and Henk,

I wanted to thank you both for two very fascinating posts linked to Mahlabatini. They made for excellent reading and certainly taught me things I didn't know (a frequent occurrence on this site!).

With thanks and best wishes
David

The information below comes from Lancing College War Memorial website. Does anyone have a photo of him we could add, both here and for Lancing College? www.hambo.org/lancing/view_man.php?id=277

Only just spotted this threat, the information actually comes - word for word, unfortunately - from a biography I prepared for the Old Bordenian Association.

Marc (Old Bordenian)

Thank you very much for the correction, Marc, and I've edited my original post.

I have the QSA to one of the NP detachment at Mahlabatini www.angloboerwar.com/forum/5-medals-and-...e-natal-police#42161