TOPIC:

Picture courtesy of Noonan's

DCM Ed VII (Pte. T. Aldrdge. 19th. Hussars.);
QSA (4) Defence of Ladysmith, Orange Free State, Laing’s Nek, Belfast (3801. Pte: T. Aldridge. 19/Hrs.);
KSA (2) (813 T. Sjt. Mjr. T. Aldridge. S.A.C.)

DCM London Gazette 27 September 1901.

Thomas Aldridge was born in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, in 1873, and attested for the 19th Hussars in London on 11 January 1892, aged 18 years 1 month, a carman by trade. He served with the Regiment in India from September 1895 until October 1899, and then in South Africa throughout the Boer War. He transferred to the Army Reserve in South Africa on 22 September 1902, and was discharged on attaining the rank of Sergeant in the South African Constabulary on 30 April 1903, after 11 years and 110 days’ service, and subsequently rose to the rank of Sergeant Major.

Picture courtesy of Noonan's

DXM VR (888 Serjt: W. J. Park. C.I.V.);
QSA (4) Cape Colony, Johannesburg, Wittebergen, Diamond Hill (888 Sgt. W. J. Park, C.I.V.);
British War and Victory Medals (019822 Pte. W. J. Park. A.O.C.)

Provenance: AA Upfill-Brown Collection, December 1991; Jack Webb Collection, August 2020.

DCM London Gazette 27 September 1901.

One of only 14 Distinguished Conduct Medals awarded to the City Imperial Volunteers during the Boer War.

William John Park was born at St. George in the East, London, on 10 December 1877. A leather cutter by occupation, he enlisted into the 1st Tower Hamlets Rifles in 1896 and served with their detachment in South Africa during the Boer War as the senior volunteer N.C.O. - under Sergeant Stevens, Royal Artillery - in the Maxim Gun Section of the Mounted Infantry, City Imperial Volunteers. For his services during the Boer War he was Mentioned in Despatches (London Gazette 10 September 1901) and awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal.

Park later saw service in the Army Ordnance Corps during the Great War.



The above sketch was reproduced in the Daily Graphic on 26 July 1900 and was drawn from notes provided by Captain Edis who had been present at the action. The British occupied Pretoria on 5 June 1900, and the sketch shows the C.I.V.s bringing their Maxim into use at Diamond Hill on 18 June. Fripp wrote, ‘They brought their Maxim over the roughest ground - almost carrying it - and managed to keep it in action for about a quarter of an hour, to the great discomfort of the enemy, notwithstanding a cross fire of “pom poms” and field guns. As usual the Boers got into a nest of rocks, but in spite of the impregnable position which they held, the discretion of valour compelled them to retire with a couple of wagon loads of dead.’

Good Morning

I have just added Silver War Badge 149360 to my collection and was delighted to discover it was awarded to Captain Arthur Smith DCM Royal Scots. Arthur had an illustrious career as I will show below from my research but I have a few queries please. FMP points me to the Anglo Boer War site and says

Biography "One of three mentioned for "exposing their lives to save others" Source RS 540. What or where is this please?

Literary Reference "Through Rhodesia with the Sharpshooters" R Stevenson 541. Does anyone have a copy of this book and could kindly provide me with details of his mentions in the book please

On arrival in South Africa he was posted to the 2nd Batt MI as CSM 9 Oct 1899 to 24 March 19091 and then
RSM 16th Batt MI . I would like to research more on each of these MI Battalions so again a suggestions would be welcome

And finally how many DCMs did the Royal Scots get for the Boer War

I have his Officer papers WO339 nearly 200 pages and even if you ignore the 50 pages on commuting pensions it is an interesting read

Military Career
Arthur attested for the Army at Leicester on 17 Sept 1884 aged 18 years 2 months and was posted to the 2nd Battalion Royal Scots as Private 1631.He gave his Date of Birth as 16 July 1866 but in fact he was born on 11 Dec 1868, so he was only 15. (He only produced evidence to the Army in 1923 of his true DOB!)

He served in the UK from 17 Sept 1884 to 28 Sept 1886

On 29 Sept 1886 Arthur went to South Africa to join the 1st Battalion already out there and he was promoted to L/Cpl 26 October 1886. Arthur took part in the operations in Zululand in 1888.

He returned to the UK on 1 Sept 1891

Arthur was a naughty boy in the early days ending up in the defaulter’s book 16 times three times for drunkenness but from 1890 onwards his behaviour was exemplary no doubt due to becoming a married man. Sadly, this early behaviour was to cost him any chance of getting an LSGC much later in his career. Indeed, he reverted to Private before getting his L/Cpl stripe back on 26 Oct 1886

He was made Cpl 25 June 1889 then Sgt 16 June 1890 and C/Sgt 7 Dec 1892. He was made QMS on 23 May 1892

Ordered to South Africa with the Royal Scots Mounted Infantry Section on the 6th November 1899 as Col Sgt. He served in the Boer War with the 16th MI from arrival till 24 March 1900 and was appointed Sgt Major 24 March 1901 then transferred to the 2nd MI as RSM from 25 March 1901 until 31 March 1902 when he rejoined the 1st Royal Scots. Served with Hickman’s brigade and in Colonel Rochfort’s Column in the drive in the Orange River Colony from Jan to March 1902.

He has done good work during the campaign. I have been informed, by officers under whom he served, that he displayed exceptional gallantry on many occasions (Lt Col W Douglas. 1st R Scots)

Mentioned for most gallant and intelligent conduct at Vredefort in July 1901.

He was awarded a DCM in LG 29 Nov 1902.

His was MID for the Boer and received a QSA with 6 Bars Relief of Kimberley, Paardeberg, Driefontein, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill and Wittbergen and a two bar KSA

He was first commissioned on the 8th October 1902 as Lieutenant & Quartermaster whilst still in South Africa. A vacancy had arisen because the existing QM, Harris, had transferred to the 3rd Battalion. He was highly recommended including by his predecessor with whom he had served as his QMS.
He arrived in India in 1909 and the Battalion were based at Allahabad. The climate was a marked change from Scotland and took its toll. Arthur was sent back to the UK on 8 months sick leave between 31 March 1911 and 30 Nov 1911. He sailed back from Karachi on the HT Rewa with a medical certificate and stayed at the home of Mr T Remington 2 Denton Street Hinckley Road Leicester. He was admitted to the Convalescent Home at Osborne on the Isle of Wight from 10th July 1911 to 4 August 1911 (QV ex holiday home!). By the 29 Nov 1911 he was on his way back to India.

10 years after being first commissioned he was appointed Hon Capt & QM on 8 Oct 1912
On 5th March 1913 on attaining 21 years’ service, he asked to be transferred to a Territorial Unit, preferably in the UK, and if accepted would apply to retire. His application was accepted, and he and his family left India from Bombay on the HT Rewa on 13 Feb 1914. He retired on the 4 March 1914 having completed 21 years and 2 months and so earning the full pension. He joined the 4th Royal Scots (Queen’s Edinburgh Rifles) and was appointed QM & Captain from 7th April 1914. He was living at 13 Mentone Terrace Edinburgh. His retirement appeared in the Gazette 4 March 1914.

He was recalled for service in WW1 and served with the 4th Royal Scots as QM & Capt on 5th August 1914. On 23 Nov 1914 his old CO (Lt Col D Hallenden asked if he could have him back in the 1st Battalion as a Captain (combatant) but his Co in the 4th declined saying he could not be spared. He went with the 4th R Scots to Gallipoli and was wounded there. His MIC shows he first landed in the Theatre of war on 10 May 1915 to qualify for the 1915 Star Trio. As the 4th did not leave Liverpool till the 22 May it is possible as QM he led an advance party. The following is what the 4th did on Gallipoli and Arthur was with them the whole of their time on the Peninsula

4RS, including the considerable reinforcement from 6RS, were brigaded, with 7RS, in 156 Brigade of 52 (Lowland) Division in April 1915 and, like them, left Larbert on 22 May for Liverpool to embark and sail for Alexandria on HMT Empress of Britain on 23 May, and later on to Lemnos. Their crossing from Lemnos to Gallipoli on the night of 12 July almost ended in as big a disaster as 7RS had suffered at Gretna. Battalion HQ and two companies where embarked on HMS Reindeer, which, while steaming unlit at 17 knots, rammed and sank an equally unlit, but fortunately empty of casualties, hospital ship. HMS Reindeer was in grave danger of sinking as well. The 4RS ‘passengers’ were assembled on the upper deck, without any lifejackets and with no panic. Reindeer then returned, under tow and stern first, to Lemnos with the soldiers being moved from side to side to trim the ship. Their ‘gallant behaviour’, before they had even joined the battle, was acknowledged in a General order from General Sir Ian Hamilton who, coincidentally, was Honorary Colonel of 9RS. 4RS eventually completed its landing at W Beach on 14 June. It moved into the front line on 19 June, relieving its sister

RS in the Gallipoli rear areas
battalion, 5RS (before the TF reorganisation of 1908 the two battalions had been the 1st and 2nd Battalions of The Queen’s Edinburgh Rifle Volunteers). This was the only time the two battalions ‘crossed’ in Gallipoli. 4RS took early casualties from shell and rifle fire. It was not one-sided, however, as the Battalion had always been proud of its shooting achievements, winning many prizes at Bisley. CQMS Dewar, who had won the King’s Prize, the individual Championship, there in 1914 now killed a Turkish sniper with his first shot in anger. This led to the GOC congratulating him saying his ‘skill and proficiency as King’s prizeman was of eminent value to his country in the field’ to which the Corps Commander added ‘Sergeant Dewar never made a ‘bulls-eye’ at Bisley as he did on this occasion’.
On 28 June the Battalion led the Brigade assault in Gully Ravine, taking all its objectives and repulsing two immediate and major counter-attacks for which the GOC signalled ‘Well done Royal Scots’. As mentioned earlier, however, the attack, across the whole front, failed in its main objective of securing Achi Baba. Casualties were very heavy with nine officers, including the CO, and 57 ORs killed, 7 and 147 wounded and 6 and 141 missing, presumed killed, a total of 22 and 345 casualties Arthur was one of those wounded this day

View looking North from the British front line across Turkish wire. Achi Baba on the skyline
or over three-quarters of the officers and one-third of the Battalion’s OR strength in a single day two weeks to the day after landing in Gallipoli. On 6 July the Battalion, at a strength of 5 officers and 519 ORs, forming two companies, amalgamated with 7RS ‘as a tentative measure pending the arrival of reinforcements’. These came on 10 August with 14 officer reinforcements, including a new CO, Colonel Young. 4RS reorganised as a separate Battalion and moved back into the line. A further six officer reinforcements reported on 19 August. The Battalion remained in front line or reserve trenches throughout September and October. There are frequent mentions in the War Diary of aircraft activity over the lines. At the end of October mention is made uncertain weather and very varying temperatures affecting the general health of the Battalion; ‘6 officers (including the CO) being sent to hospital (in that month alone) chiefly from jaundice and dysentery’. Although only mentioned in the 4RS War Diary, the same problems affected all those serving in Gallipoli from the earliest days. Despite several truces arranged to recover and bury the dead there was a constant smell of a mix of human excrement (diarrhoea was a major problem and troops could not leave their trenches for proper field latrines) and that from bodies decomposing in the heat. Swarms of flies and mosquitoes, and pervasive dirt and sand were everywhere. Every drop of water on the Allied side had to be brought to the Peninsula by sea. Consequently it was mostly used for cooking and drinking. There was never enough for the latter especially in the heat of the summer. Even less was available for personal hygiene which made the troops more susceptible to sickness and disease. At night the temperatures plummeted and men found it difficult to sleep, even without the almost constant noise of the guns.
The Battalion strength as at 31 October had shrunk to 12 officers and 330 ORs but the ‘efficient rifle strength’ is given as only 181 – or well under one company’s establishment. As a result, on 4 November, the Battalion again formed a composite battalion ‘for tactical purposes’ with 7RS, to be named 7RS, which remained the organisation until the end of the Campaign and until it reached Egypt after the withdrawal. On 15 November the Battalion successfully attacked and held a Turkish trench to their front, with very low casualties, and which was subsequently held against a counter-attack, earning a message of congratulations from the Corps Commander. The weather deteriorated rapidly from that point with heavy rain and snow flooding trenches and dugouts, the former becoming canals forcing men to stand precariously on the narrow fire-steps and risking becoming targets for snipers. One particularly violent storm, with hurricane force winds, rain, sleet and snow, swept the Peninsula from 26 -28 November destroying the piers and lighters on the beaches upon which the Force was entirely dependent for its supplies. This only strengthened the arguments for abandoning the campaigns, a decision which followed in December. 7RS remained in the lines to the very end, being the last unit of 52 (Lowland) Division to leave Gallipoli at 3am on 9 January 1916. In contrast to the failure of so many operations during the campaign the withdrawal was a brilliant success with the whole force slipping away unnoticed and without casualties. The luck which had surrounded 4RS on their aborted arrival on HMS Reindeer reappeared on their departure on the battleship HMS Prince George. Soon after sailing from Gallipoli she was struck by a torpedo but it failed to explode. The composite Battalion left Lemnos for Alexandria on 19 January, arriving at Alexandria on the 21st and moving inland to Abbassia where, on 25 January, Colonel Young having returned from hospital, the Battalion reformed as 4RS.
Strengths
22 May Entrained Larbert 31 officers 995 ORs Total 1026
25 January having reformed at Abbassia 20 officers 278 ORs Total 298
Casualties Killed 12 officers 207 ORs, including 35 from 6RS. Total 219 (There are very few details of wounded in the 4RS War Diary, other than seven officers on 28 June)
Reinforcements 29 officers 62 ORs, all from 3/4RS
(Unlike 5RS and 7RS, 4RS appear to have received very few OR reinforcements during the Campaign)
It is difficult to be accurate on exact casualties as they were not always detailed, particularly the wounded, in Battalion War Diaries at this time. Using post-war lists of those Royal Scots killed, however, and including those in the Gretna Disaster, perhaps the most chilling figures are those below, totalling the figures for 4RS, 5RS and 7RS in the eight months from April to December 1915. Note: A figure of 200 ORs has been deducted to reflect the members of 8HLI attached to 7RS as those killed are listed on their parent battalion roll.
Entrained/Embarked UK 93 officers 2833 ORs Total 2926
Killed 44 officers 786 ORs Total 830
% 47.3 27.7 28.4
It would be reasonable to expect at least two wounded for every one killed.
Summary
1915 was ‘The year of the Territorial’ for the Regiment. Apart from the 4/5th and 7th Battalions deployed in Gallipoli, 6RS deployed to Egypt and thence to Mersa Matruh, to the West of Egypt, where the local Senussi tribe where threatening problems, and the 8th and 9th Battalions were in France. In spite of, by today’s standards, horrendous casualties and terrible living and fighting conditions, never once was a Royal Scots TF Battalion, or an individual Royal Scots Territorial, found wanting in their Service to King and Country.


He served to 16 Dec 1916 when he was discharged Sick and relinquished his commission from 17 December 1916. He applied for a silver war badge writing from Ratcliffe House Syston on the 7th May 1917 and was sent Badge No 149360 on the 21st May 1917.

He was also MID in LG 22 May 1917 page 5024
Black, Temp. Lt. W. C. G.
Devine, Temp. Lt. J. R.
Sandison, 2nd Lt. E. W., Spec. Res. (deceased).
Smith, Qrmr. and Hon. Capt. A., Res. of Off.
Park, No. 43367 Co Serjt. Maj. G (since transferred to M.G.C.).
Flynn, No. 17078 Pte (actg. Corpl.) F. P.
McCoy, No. 43745 Pte. P.



His papers note he intends to take up the position of Assistant Paymaster but does not say with whom although by then he is back in Leicester. It is not clear whether he ever did take up such an appointment.
He applied for his 1915 Trio in 1919

After the war Arthur went to India arriving on the 29 Dec 1919 and was employed in Bombay. He was living at Rheims House, Owen Dunn Road, Gamdevi, Bombay. By 1920 he had moved to Nazir House, Cumbala Hill, Bombay. Unfortunately, he lost his job and had to return to the UK which he did in 1922 and on 5 Aug 1922 was writing from a friend’s house C/o Mr Kilby 72 Wanslip Road, Syston, Leicester.

He joined the Royal Army Ordnance Depot at Didcot on the 12th Jan 1923 as 558, temp labourer rising to Temp Assistant Foreman on 11 Sept 1924 and was still with them 21 Oct 1926. He was then living at Ivymeath, Long Wittenham, Abingdon, Berks.


www.ancestry.co.uk/mediaui-viewer/collec...ndex=3&sort=-created

Grandrew2
According to Abbott's book on DCM recipients, the Royal Scots (Lothian Regt) earned eighteen DCMs during the Boer War 1899-1902. Three of which were with the MI.
Over the years, I have had cause to use available resources to research the activities of MI bns of interest; specifically the 2nd and 21st BNs., MI. For your task, I would suggest you start with the index volumes of Amery's Times History to see if you can get matches for the MI of interest; you may also find Maurice's Official History assists. And a check of the SAFF casualty lists in the latter part of the conflict can give some idea of the scope of activity.
Even Stirling (Our Regiments in South Africa) regretted that - due to the widespread nature of the MI's activities during the guerilla phase of the war - regretted he could not give the MI full credit for their activities.
Good luck with your quest.
Regards
IL.

Many thanks to IL for your kind and helpful reply re the number of DCMs to the Royal Scots

I followed up in the Newspaper Archive and uncovered the following articles re his death in Leicester

Just to track down
Biography "One of three mentioned for "exposing their lives to save others" Source RS 540. What or where is this please?

Literary Reference "Through Rhodesia with the Sharpshooters" R Stevenson 541. Does anyone have a copy of this book and could kindly provide me with details of his mentions in the book please


Many thanks to anyone who can help me further please

Andrew

And one more courtesy of FMP and the Leicester Evening News