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Pictures courtesy of C&T Auctions

QSA (1) Cape Colony (11024 L.CPL. W. CATHERALL R.A.M.C.);
KSA (2) (11024 CORPL: W CATHERALL R.A.M.C.);
[ 1914 Star trio ];
[ LS&GC ]

Wallace Catherall from Dorking in Surrey attested for the Medical Staff Corps on 6th March 1896. He spent 2 years and 259 days in South Africa serving with No.1 General Hospital. Both medals with these clasps are confirmed on the relevant rolls. He continued serving through into the Great War and landed in France on 14th August 1914 qualifying for a 1914 Star trio. In November the same year he was awarded his Army Long Service and Good Conduct medal. He was commissioned as Lieutenant & Quarter Master in the Royal Army Medical Corps on 14th April 1917, having served 21 years and 40 days in the Ranks.

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QSA (1) Cape Colony (12467 PTE. P BOURNE R.A.M.C.);
KSA (2) (12467 PTE. P BOURNE R.A.M.C.);
[ Gret War trio ]

Percival Bourne from St Pancras, London attested for service in the Royal Army Medical Corps on 11th July 1899 aged 18 years and 1 month. He served in South Africa from January 1900 until June 1903 serving with No.2, No.5 and No.14 General Hospitals. He transferred to the reserve on 24th June 1903 and was finally discharged on 10th July 1911.

Recalled for service during the Great War he served with the 13th Battalion London Regiment and 5th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment with whom he was wounded in November 1918 (GSW to the back).

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QSA (2) Cape Colony, Orange Free State (10310 PTE. H.R. TILLING R.A.M.C.);
KSA (2) (10310 PTE. H.R. TILLING R.A.M.C.)

Henry Robert Tiling was a 23-year-old Watchmaker from Islington when he attested for the Medical Staff Corps on 5th March 1894. He served for 12 years before being discharged on 4th March 1906. He served in South Africa from 1st November 1899 until 21st May 1902 and again from 5th June 1902 until 16th December 1902.

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QSA (3) Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal (10080 PTE. J. EVANS R.A.M.C.);
KSA (2) (10080 PTE. J. EVANS R.A.M.C.)

C&T say 'Present on roll for QSA but clasp entitlement is difficult to confirm, medal and both clasps confirmed on the KSA roll.'

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QSA (4) Cape Colony, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, Wittebergen (6770 PTE. W. BUNFIELD R.A.M.C.);
KSA (2) (6770 PTE. W. BUNFIELD R.A.M.C.)

William Bunfield, a 19-year-old labourer from Swaffham, Norfolk, attested for service on 15th June 1885. He served for a total of 16 years and 353 days before his discharge on termination of his engagement on 2nd June 1902. He served in South Africa from 8th February 1900 to 28th May 1902 with the rest of his service being at home.

C& T say both medals and all clasps are confirmed on the rolls with the Queens medal being on the roll of the 20th Bearer Company, Royal Army Medical Corps.

Picture courtesy of Noonan's

CMG s/g converted b/b;
East and West Africa 1887 (1) Sierra Leone 1898-99 (Major A. Hosie, M.B. R.A.M.C.);
QSA (2) Cape Colony, Orange Free State (Major A. Hosie. R.A.M.C.) engraved naming;
KSA (2) (Maj. A. Hosie. M.B. R.A.M.C.) engraved naming;
1914-15 Star (Lt. Col. A. Hosie. R.A.M.C.);
British War and Victory Medals, with copy MID (Lt. Col. A. Hosie.)

CMG London Gazette 5 June 1917.
MID London Gazette 1 July 1917.

Andrew Hosie was born in Inverurie on 7 February 1860, and is recorded in 1881 as a medical student at the University of Aberdeen. Graduating MB, CM in 1883, and MD in 1885, he was appointed Surgeon in the Royal Army Medical Corps on 28 July 1886. Advanced Surgeon-Captain in 1891 and Major in 1898, the Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps notes Hosie serving on the Protectorate Expedition (Sierra Leone) as Senior Medical Officer, Falaba Columns; despatched to put down a series of tribal rebellions led by Bai Bureh, the British faced a determined opposition fuelled by strong resistance to the hut tax and Imperial rule.

Posted to South Africa during the Boer War, Hosie was called upon to give evidence at Bloemfontein on 31 August 1900. His testimony gave weight to the ‘General Conclusions on Various Points’ which found that the military and medical authorities had never anticipated the magnitude and scale of the war: ‘The R.A.M.C. was wholly insufficient in staff and equipment for such a war... Speaking of the officers as a whole, they say their conduct and capacity deserves great praise. Their devotion to their duties both at the front and in the fixed hospitals, and the unselfish way in which they have attended to the sick and wounded, often at the risk of life have been recognised by all impartial witnesses. Nevertheless, the number of those who have died during this war in discharge of their duty is unfortunately large. There were, of course, a few exceptions to the general efficiency, and cases of roughness and inattention to the wants of patients on the parts of a few officers... and wounded patients who suffered, or persons who saw the suffering made general charges against the R.A.M.C.’

Raised Lieutenant-Colonel on 28 July 1906, Hosie enjoyed the next eight years in retirement on the Isle of Wight before volunteering for service during the Great War. Initially assigned to home duties, he served in Egypt from 15 March 1915, was Mentioned in Despatches, and was created a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George.