TOPIC:

Hi,
I purchased a QSA this week here in New Zealand, named to a W Cleeve Edwards. He is on the roll of the Public Works Department, and received a no-clasp QSA as a civilian. I purchased it really only because Walter Edwards was a New Zealander, and the PWD looks to be a very small unit of 25 individuals.

The medal roll states that 'for details of services performed by each individual officer included in this Roll, please see separate Schedule attached'. Naturally I would love to see this Schedule - does anyone know if they have survived any where?

I have attached an image of the naming, for those who are interested.

Cheers

Phil

Hi Phil

Thanks for showing your new medal. First I have heard of that. It sounds interesting. Could it be a supplementary roll, or just a piece of paper later on in the roll? I have sometimes found at the start or end of the medal roll is a hand written note with details about individuals. Maybe they are referring to something like that? You may need to page through the whole role?

Good luck, I would love to see what they ended up doing and where they were actually located.

Ryan

Phil
Thanks for showing the medal and naming. We can always get a nice surprise when researching such a medal. Does the roll say your man was a KIWI? If there are no further papers available in UK, you might perhaps try NZ newspapers of the period. "Public Works Department" would appear to indicate someone involved with the supply/repair of essential services; like water or similar. Assuming that your man is a KIWI, is there anything in NZ archives about the sending of such a small body of chaps?
Keep us informed!
IL.

Hi IL and Ryan,

He is definitely a kiwi, but not part of any official contingent from New Zealand. There are a couple of references to W Cleeve Edwards in our newspapers. One mentions his appointment in the Public Works Department in Bechuanaland in July 1897 (no CGHGSM though!). He appears to have been involved in the engineering of railways bridges in New Zealand, but there is nothing about his Boer War service that I have found so far. I see he is listed on the Headquarters Staff of the PWD, so perhaps he oversaw whatever work they were doing?

His son was killed in France in October 1918 serving with the Royal Engineers, and he himself died in Sydney, Australia in 1929. His brief obituary in the Geology Society Journal doesn't mention is war work regretably.

Ryan - nothing on the medal roll that I can see. Other civilians do get a small write-up in the margins of the roll, but not the PWD men unfortunately.

Cheers

Phil

Phil,

The medal roll is frustrating in identifying further information but then not including it.

There is a short paper by Walter Cleeve Edwards on Cylindrical Bridge-Piers : New Zealand Midland Railway .

A little more biographical information:

He was the Assistant Engineer, Wellington and Manawatu Railway, Wellington, New Zealand.

In 1885, he was a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

Source: www.gracesguide.co.uk/Walter_Cleeve_Edwards