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Gunner Percy Plumpton Diamond Fields Artillery






Percy Plumpton enrolled in the DFA on 11 Aug 00. He was discharged medically unfit 3 May 02. He was also entitled to the KSA with 2 clasps.(A re-unite would be a dream!)

This QSA with bars CC & Transvaal to the DFA is rather scarce as there were only 4 men in the unit that received this combination.
(Thanks to Dave Biggins for all the above info.)

Diamond Fields Artillery (DFA). Raised at Kimberley in 1896 finally as an independent unit not as an artillery troop to the Kimberley Light Horse and then later the Diamond Fields Horse. It served in the Langberg Campaign in Bechuanaland in 1897.

In the Second Boer War with an initial strength of 97 equipped with six 2.5 inch 7 pounder screw guns. These served them till at least 1906. They served through the Siege of Kimberley with five officers and 108 other ranks(another source give total unit strength as 138); the commanding officer was Captain May. Records show that they were present at the Battle of De Klipdrift (Tweebosch) using pom-poms. It was at this engagement that General de la Rey captured Lord Methuen.



Battle of Tweebosch


By 1903 its strength was 92 strong. On the 14th February 1905 it’s name changed to Diamond Field’s Field Artillery. Interest lessened with peace and by 1907 the unit had just become a Field Battery of the Kimberley Regiment. In 1908 they had ceased to exist, due to the merging of the Diamond Fields Horse, Kimberley Light Horse and Kimberley Mounted Corps to form the Kimberley Regiment as it is today.

The DFA wore the slouch hat with khaki in Bechuanaland, when practically all units adopted it. J J Hulme gives the dress of the DFA in 1899 as khaki jacket, cord breeches, blue puttees, black ankle boots, white helmet with khaki cover and an FS cap blue with silver piping for officers and yellow for other ranks.

The Regiment was presented with King’s Colours by Princess Christian on the 10th October 1904. With the disbandment of the Field Battery in 1908, the colour was laid up in St. Cyprians’s Cathedral.

Brian,

It is wonderful to see Gnr Plumpton again!

Best wishes
David

Dawid

Thanks, one of my first Victorian Colonial Artillery medals. At the time I had to think long and hard as it was the most expensive medal I had ever purchased...all of just less than 100 pounds at todays exchange rate!

Link to one of the Battle of Tweebosch sites. Mr Plumpton must have been one of the PomPom gunners I would assume, for him to have qualified for the Transvaal clasp?

archive.is/qjvQE

Brian

"Just less than 100 pounds" when was this? I agree with David, a very good and scarce medal.

Brianc wrote: Dawid

Thanks, one of my first Victorian Colonial Artillery medals. At the time I had to think long and hard as it was the most expensive medal I had ever purchased...all of just less than 100 pounds at todays exchange rate!

Link to one of the Battle of Tweebosch sites. Mr Plumpton must have been one of the PomPom gunners I would assume, for him to have qualified for the Transvaal clasp?

archive.is/qjvQE

Brian

Frank

Purchased the medal just over 10 years ago.It has a little pawn brokers mark, but fortunately not bad as some I have seen.

Regards
Brian

Hello Brian,
So a decade ago, but, still well after the centenary though, rarer than it was expensive I think!
Kind regards Frank