TOPIC:

Anyone have views on why no gallantry medal for John Dunne? In the Indian Mutiny two 15 year olds won VC's;
- Andrew Fitzgibbon, a hospital apprentice, attending to wounded even while he was wounded.
- Thomas Flinn, a drummer wounded in hand to hand combat.
In WW1 Jack Cornwell was 16 when he was wounded (and subsequently died) staying at his post in Jutland.
Maybe a replacement bugle from the Queen was deemed sufficient?

This from a website "Shortly before he died, Dunne talked to a reporter for the Sydney Daily Telegraph, telling his story (reproduced here from the newspaper image below); 'John Francis Dunne, boy-bugler hero of the Boer War battle of Colenso, was this week admitted to a Sydney hospital. He is now 65 years old. [He turned 66 just days after the article was published.] For years school history books have told of the bravery in battle of the 15-years-old bugler, and how Queen Victoria rewarded him with a silver bugle. Boer War veterans often speak of his gallantry. Yesterday, lying in his hospital bed, silver-haired and bespectacled, Mr. Dunne recalled the campaign. “Colenso was a bitter, bloody battle,” Mr. Dunne said. “It was December 15, 1899. We were fighting to cross the Tugela River and relieve Ladysmith, and the Boers were giving us a slathering. I was just 15 at the time - I had enlisted as a boy bugler in the 1st Dublin Fusiliers a little over a year before, the day I turned 14. I got the order to sound the advance - never play the retreat in the British Army, you know. Learn it, but never play it. As I played the advance I began to charge with the officers at the head of the men, when a Boer bullet went through my right arm and hurled my bugle from me Simultaneously a piece of shell struck my chest. I staggered to my feet, picked up my bugle with my left arm, and finished sounding the advance. The other buglers along the lines picked it up and sounded the call also and the troops moved forward. We crossed the river with heavy casualties, but took Ladysmith.” Mr. Dunne said he was carried from the battlefront on a stretcher, and was invalided to a hospital in England. “Queen Victoria sent for me when I recovered,” he said. “I was taken to the Isle of Wight in the Royal Yacht to see her. She was very kind to me, and presented me with the bugle.” Mr. Dunne said the bugle was stolen from him while he was in the Army in England three years later.'
Dunne was discharged as medically unfit on 17 March, 1902. For his service in South Africa he received the Queen's South Africa Medal with the clasp Relief of Ladysmith and a £5 war gratuity. Apparently he had been offered the enormous sum of £3,000 by Madame Tussaud's for the bugle, but he declined the offer, only to have it stolen."

A signed portrait from the next Lockdales auction


Picture courtesy of Lockdales

Described as:

Battle of Colenso interest - a superb, large photo of John Dunn, Bugler to 'A' Coy 1st Dublin Fus. Wounded in the battle, he lost his bugle which was replaced by Queen Victoria at Osborne House. This photo was taken at Portsmouth with John holding his new bugle, and is hand signed by John, photo probably taken as soon as he had got back from the Isle of Wight.

Source: ILN, page 252, 24 Feb 1900

Bugler Dunne had his visit to Osborne on Monday, crossing the Solent from Southsea in the charge of Lieutenant Knox. A boy of fifteen, dressed in khaki, he was ushered by Sir John McNeil into a small room, where sat her Majesty near a table. He stood and bowed a little nervously ; then the Queen told him to step forward, asked him about his wound and whether he liked the Army - which he said he did - and finally presented him with a bugle to take the place of that which he lost by the Tugela River. The new instrument is silver-mounted; it has a green bugle-cord, the green dear to a boy whose father was born in County Tipperary ; and a silver plate attached to it bears the inscription : " Presented to Bugler John Francis Dunne, 1st Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers, by Queen Victoria, to replace the bugle lost by him on the field of battle at Colenso, on the 10th December, 1899 when he was wounded."

Another photograph from the same sitting.

I wonder what happened to the stolen bugle, and, should it ever turn up on the market, what would the legal position be in terms of stolen goods..?!






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Great pictures - anyone know what the medallion is?

The Cornish Telegraph of 29 August 1900 reported that "amongst the latest gifts sent the young soldier is a valuable gold watch, presented by a London gentleman".
Perhaps this watch came with a chain and pendant/medal?

If inscribed it may be an unrecorded tribute medal.

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