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An unusually mounted QSA.


Picture courtesy of Noonan's

QSA (4) Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1901, date clasp loose, as issued (10800 Pte C. Walker, 40th Coy 10th Impl: Yeo:) mounted on a silvered bullet fixed to a mounted pin.

C. Walker attested into the 40th (Oxfordshire) Company, Imperial Yeomanry for service in South Africa during the Second Boer War.

He was wounded at Buffelshoek on 6 December 1900.

Picture courtesy of Spink

CMG n/b s/g;
DSO GV;
QSA (5) Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal; South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (Lieut: T. Nisbet, Imp: Yeo:);
1914-15 Star (Capt. T. Nisbet 28/Lt Cavy.);
British War and Victory Medals, with MID (Col. T. Nisbet);
General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Kurdistan (Col. T. Nisbet.);
Delhi Durbar 1911;
France, Republic, Legion d'Honneur, breast Badge, silver, gold centres and enamel;
France, Republic, Croix de Guerre, with Palme upon riband, reverse dated '1914-1916'.

CMG London Gazette 3 June 1919.

DSO London Gazette 17 March 1917.

MID London Gazette 10 April & 2 November 1917, 15 April 1918, 5 March 1919.

French Legion of Honour London Gazette 28 June 1920.

French Croix de Guerre London Gazette 4 September 1917.

Thomas Nisbet was born on 1 December 1882, the son of Thomas Mordaunt Nisbet of Pitlochry, Scotland. On finishing his schooling at Fettes College Nisbet went up to RMC Sandhurst, being commissioned in Prince Albert's Somerset Light Infantry in 1901. He served in the Boer War initially in the Imperial Yeomanry and in the following year he was attached to the Mounted Infantry before transferring to the 28th Cavalry, Indian Army in 1904.

From 1911-14 he was Adjutant of the Bihar Light Horse and was present at the Delhi Durbar in 1911. During the Great War he served on the Staff of the 13th Division at Gallipoli and later on General Maude's Staff as AA and AMG, first of the Cavalry Division and later the 3rd Indian Division in Mesopotamia.

In 1919 he was appointed Director-in-Chief of the Repatriation and Relief of Refugees, Syria, and Palestine. He retired from the Army in 1927 residing at Brightwell, Wallingford in Berkshire where he died 24 February 1956.

Sold together with an impressive original archive comprising:

i)
Parchment commission appointing him Second Lieutenant in Prince Alberts (Somersetshire) Light Infantry dated 13 September 1901.

ii)
Four Mention in Despatch certificates; 10 April 1917, 2 November 1917, 15 April 1918 and 5 March 1919.

iii)
The Statutes for his CMG and DSO.

iii)
Original Parchment award documents for; DSO dated 17 March 1917, & CMG dated 3 June 1919.

iv)
Award document as an Officer of The Legion of Honour dated 26 May 1920.

v)
An A5 pamphlet titled "The Motor Route From India" by Col. T. Nisbet CMG, an entertaining lecture he gave of his journey of some 4000 miles through Persia.

vi)
Original Letters from Army Headquarters India regarding his continuous employment in the India Army.

vii)
Letter from the Commander in Chief Indian Army to General Sir Walter Congreve VC, KCB, MVO concerning Nisbet and his employment in the Indian Army.

viii)
Letter from The Central Chancery concerning the award of his CMG.

Picture courtesy of Noonan's

OBE (Civil) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge, silver-gilt;
QSA (3) Cape Colony, Transvaal, South Africa 1901 (8488 Pte. J. D. Tod. 19th Coy 6th Impl: Yeo:);
Defence Medal;
Special Constabulary Long Service Medal, GVI 1st issue (John D. Tod), mounted for wear alongside a KSA (1) SA01 (483 Pte. T. Uffendell. Rl: Scots.) to which the recipient was not entitled, half-hearted attempted erasure to KSA, edge bruising and contact marks.

OBE LG 9 January 1946: John Dun Tod, Esq., JP, DL, Air Raid Precautions Controller, County of Midlothian.

John Dun Tod, an Engineer from Lasswade, Midlothian, was born on 29 January 1877. He attested into the 19th (Lothians and Berwickshire) Imperial Yeomanry, in Edinburgh, on 13 January 1900 and served in South Africa during the Second Boer War from 25 February 1900 to 28 February 1901 (and therefore not entitled to the King’s South Africa Medal). He was discharged in Edinburgh on 14 April 1901.

Later appointed a Justice of the Peace, and a Deputy Lieutenant for Midlothian, he served as a Special Constable and, during the Second World War, was the Air Raid Precautions Controller for the County of Midlothian.

He died, aged 80, in Edinburgh on 23 May 1957.

Picture courtesy of Noonan's

QSA (2) Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 2 clasps, Cape Colony, Wittebergen (Capt. Stanley-Clarke. 2/Co 1/Imp. Yeo.) engraved naming, note lack of initials which were never added

William Willoughby Stanley-Clarke was born in 1868, the eldest son of the late Colonel Stanley Clarke, 21st Hussars, and was educated at Cheltenham College. At the outbreak of the Boer War he was engaged in tea-planting in Ceylon, but volunteered for active service; his services were accepted and he was granted the rank of Captain in the army from 10 March 1900, and joined the Imperial Yeomanry from the 6th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment, in which he had served as a Captain from August 1894.

Captain Stanley-Clarke commanded No. 2 Company, 1st Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry from the forming of the battalion. The battalion consisting of 1st (Wiltshire) Company; 2nd (Wiltshire) Company, commanded by Captain Stanley Clarke; 3rd (Gloucestershire) Company; 4th (Glamorganshire) Company; and 63rd (Wiltshire) Company. The Battalion arrived at Cape Town on 23 and 30 March 1900 and were immediately sent up to the Imperial Yeomanry Base Camp at McKenzie Farm. On the 16 April orders were given for the battalions to move ‘up country’, with Captain Stanley Clarke’s No. 2 Company being ordered to Springfontien. They were joined several days later by HQ and the balance of the Wiltshire’s.

For the next few weeks, the Yeomanry were employed on escort and patrol duties, before joining General Rundle’s 8th Division on 4 May. At this time General Rundle was involved in preliminary movements by which he intended to surround Boer forces operating in the Eastern corner of the Free State, driving them briefly into the Brandwater Basin. On 5 May, No. 4 and No. 2 Company went into action for the first time, luckily having no casualties. Patrols continued for the next few weeks but on 25 May, elements of No. 2 Company were involved in an action at Senekal in which Major Dalbiac and a number of men from the Middlesex Yeomanry were killed and wounded. Men of No. 2 Company captured a Boer flag.

By June, operations commenced to surround the Boer forces of 10,000 men under Generals De Wet, Prinsloo and Olivier, with the 1st Imperial Yeomanry being part of General Rundle’s own force which occupied a line between Ficksburg and Sekekal. According to the regimental history, ‘From this date until 25 July, the 1st Imperial Yeomanry was employed in escort and reconnaissance duty with the 8th Division, being daily under enemy fire, for the whole country was alive with scattered bands of the enemy.’

Small actions were taking place all along the lines, and during the months of June and July the Boers were being pushed back, though De Wet and his force managed to slip through the cordon. However, on 30 July 1900, General Martinus Prinsloo surrendered at Surrender Hill in the Brandwater Basin, and for the Yeomanry, the next month consisted of mopping up patrols and expeditions.

On 24 August 1900, Captain Clarke went out on patrol with part of his company into the Brandwater Basin, where many of the Boers that escaped the surrender of Prinsloo were hiding out. The company formed part of a larger force of Leicester Imperial Yeomanry and Port Elizabeth Guards, under Captain Harrison of the Leicesters (all told around 200 men). Captain Clarke was sent off with a detachment to try and capture a force of Boers who had been reported to be at a farm in the mountains. At daybreak on 26 August, the farm was surrounded, but it was discovered that several more Boers were held up in a nearby cave. Captain Clarke and Lieutenant Barclay, with a number of men, attempted to enter the cave, but Captain Clarke was shot and killed and Lieutenant Barclay and a Private were wounded. On hearing the firing, Captain Harrison came up with the Leicesters, but in the confusion caused by the loss of the two Officers, most of the Boers managed to escape, leaving 1 dead and 17 captured.

‘The Last Post’ states Stanley Clarke was killed at Harrismith, which was under British control at the time, but the regimental history makes it clear that it was during the search for Boer stragglers in the Brandwater Basin (in which 1st Imperial Yeomanry were heavy involved) that the action took place. Captain Stanley Clarke’s name is inscribed on the Eleanor Cross War Memorial at Cheltenham College.

‘The Annals of the Yeomanry Cavalry of Wiltshire’ Vol 2 1893 – 1908, gives a detailed account of the formation of the raising of the Wiltshire companies, Imperial Yeomanry for service in the Boer War and their service during the War itself.

Interested Forum members
It is interesting to run across a post where the unit and date of an action jog the memory.
Attached is a pic of a deeply toned QSA which came into IL's temporary custody some twenty years ago:



The medal is impressed to "93 Pte. J.Hill. 2nd Coy., 1st Imp: Yeo:" and it bears Hill's three clasps loose on what looks like the original ribbon.
SAFF shows Capt. W. Stanley Clarke of 1st Bn., I.Y. as killed in the Brandwater Basin on 24th August 1900, Lt. M.W. Barkley (Barklay) of the same Bn. as being severely wounded at same location and same date and "93 Pte W.Hill" (same Bn., same location same date ) as being slightly wounded.
These are the only three names listed for the action of 24th August 1900. Somehow the date of 26th August came to be recognized by the Annals.
Regards
IL.

Picture courtesy of Noonan's

(a) Waterloo 1815 (Corp. Alexander Gardner, 2nd or R.N. Brit. Reg. Drag.) fitted with original steel clip and straight bar suspension, edge bruising and contact marks, otherwise better than good fine

(b) Crimea (2) Balaklava, Sebastopol (Pte. A. D. Gardiner, 2d Drgns.) contemporary engraved naming in the style of Hint & Roskell;
Turkish Crimea, British issue, unnamed as issued, fitted with small rings for suspension, unofficial rivets between clasps (Sebastopol clasp issued separately), toned, good very fine

(c) QSA (2) Cape Colony, South Africa 1902 (38905 Pte. W. E. Gardiner, 32nd Bn: Imp: Yeo:)

Alexander Gardiner was born at New Kilpatrick, Dunbarton, Scotland, circa 1794, and enlisted for the 2nd Dragoons at Glasgow on 25 January 1809, aged 15 years. Promoted to Corporal in April 1815, he served at Waterloo in Captain Poole’s Troop, and is noted in the various rolls as having been wounded. He was promoted to Sergeant in August 1818, and to Troop Sergeant-Major in January 1826. He was, however, reduced to Private from November 1829 until February 1830, when he was restored to the rank of Sergeant. He was discharged at Dalkeith on 5 May 1835, aged 41, intending to reside at Oswestry, Salop, where he died in June 1848. The local newspaper, Eddowes’s Journal and General Advertiser for Shropshire, and the Principality of Wales, carried a lengthy report on Wednesday 28 June covering the ‘Funeral of the late Sergeant-Major Gardiner, late of the Scots Greys.’ He was buried with full military honours, with an escort being provided by the North Shropshire Yeomanry. ‘The late Sergeant-Major,’ the report concluded, ‘served in the Greys twenty five years, was with that fine regiment at Waterloo, and has now three sons in its ranks, the eldest of whom is a corporal, and all respected by their commanding officers.’

Alexander Douglas Gardiner was born at Norwich, circa 1826, second son of Troop Sergeant-Major Alexander Gardiner, who was then stationed in that town. He enlisted into the 2nd Dragoons at Athlone on 14 April 1848, being recruited by his brother, Private James Gardiner, of the same regiment. He was, in fact, one of three brothers to follow into their father’s regiment, the now famous Scots Greys. Aged 22, he enlisted for a period of 12 years, but army life cannot have been to his immediate liking, if ever it was, as he had committed some misdemeanour before the year’s end that landed him in prison for a week. He was in trouble again in August 1851, this time serving a sentence of three months. Gardiner was so severely wounded at Balaklava that he was discharged from the army at Chatham on 23 October 1855, in consequence of being ‘disabled by amputation of left thigh at its centre after cannon shot wound received at Balaklava.’

Gardiner’s wound, which was reported in the London Gazette on 12 November 1854, and the circumstances of the occasion are of great interest in that his life was saved by Private Henry Ramage, who won the Victoria Cross on that day. His citation states: ‘At the battle of Balaklava, Pte. McPherson, of the 2nd Dragoons, was severely wounded and surrounded by seven Russians. Pte. Ramage rode to his help, cut his way through the enemy and saved his comrade’s life. On the same day, when the Heavy Brigade was covering the retreat of the Light Cavalry, Pte. Gardiner’s leg was shattered by a round shot, and he lay on the ground exposed to a very heavy cross-fire. Ramage dashed to his rescue and carried him to the rear, the place where he had fallen being almost immediately covered by Russian cavalry.’

Alexander D. Gardiner died at Warrington on 14 May 1879, aged 52 years.

Wilfred Ernest Gardiner was born at St Paul’s, near Warrington, Lancashire, on 10 May 1872, the fifth child and second son of Alexander Douglas Gardiner. He volunteered for service with the Imperial Yeomanry in South Africa at Worsley on 6 January 1902. He served in South Africa with the 144th Company, 32nd Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry, from 7 May until 18 October 1902, just in time to witness the closing stages of the Boer War. He was discharged at Aldershot on 26 October 1902, at his own request after serving for only 294 days. He subsequently pursued a career as a Foreman Engineer, and died at Manchester on 29 April 1846, aged 73 years.