TOPIC:

There are two QSAs to civilians in the next Spink sale:

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, no clasp (Mr. M. Dwyer.), very fine £40-60
WO100/155p85
A telegraphist

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, no clasp (J. J. Raymer.), good very fine £40-60
W100/279p158
Worked for the Public Works Department in the Water Boring Field Establishment
A E Reymer served in the same unit

The rolls states: 'I certify that the individuals named in this roll were reported to have rendered material assistance in the success of operations, in terms of Rule No. 17, sanctioned by the Secretary of State for adoption, a copy of which was received under cover of Colonial Office letter No. Q1/62/375, dated 14th June 1905.'

The roll is dated 19 August 1905.

These two QSAs sold for hammer prices of £55 and £65 respectively.

Picture courtesy of DNW

QSA (0) (G. V. Fiddes, C.B, Esq. Secty: to C.C.)

G.C.M.G. London Gazette 12 February 1917.
K.C.M.G. London Gazette 1 January 1912.
C.M.G. London Gazette 1 January 1905.
K.C.B. London Gazette 1 January 1919.
C.B. London Gazette 8 January 1901.

George Vandeleur Fiddes was born at Great Yarmouth on 4 September 1858, and was educated at Dulwich College and at Brasenose College, Oxford, where he gained a second-class degree in Classical Moderations in 1879. He entered the Colonial Office in 1881 and was promoted to First Class Clerk in 1896, after long service as private secretary to the Earl of Onslow, Lord Pirbright, and Sir Richard Meade, He went on to be appointed as Imperial Secretary and Accountant to Sir Alfred Milner, High Commissioner for South Africa 1897-1900, and as Political Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief, South Africa, 1900. He was also Secretary to the Transvaal Administration, 1900-02, and returned to the Colonial Office as Principal Clerk in 1902. He became Assistant Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1909, and was Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1916-21. Sir George Fidddes died on 22 December 1936.

When the group was sold by Spink in December 1893 (in that amazing catalogue), it consisted of:

(a) Order of the Bath. K.C.B. Civil, silver gilt, star and badge
Group of three mounted as worn.
(b) Queens South Africa Medal. No bar. (G. V. Fiddes C.B., Esq. Secty. to C.C.)
(c) Coronation Medal 1902. Silver, unnamed as issued.
(d) Coronation Medal 1911. Silver, unnamed as issued.

Picture courtesy of DNW

QSA (0) (Mr. R. X. Atteridge.)

Richard Xavier Atteridge was born in 1869 at Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland and was a civilian employed in Army Telegraphs during the Boer War.

He is described on the roll as a refugee and is entitled to the clasp for Transvaal.

From the City Coins auction, 4 November 2022

QSA (0) (J. C. Burton.)
[ Natal 1906 (1) Sgt, Natal Telegraph Corps ]

James Charley Burton of 413 Pietermaritz Street, Pietermaritzburg, Natal, joined the Imperial Service on 17 February 1884.
He was appointed as a Clerk in the Natal Telegraph Department on 13 February 1889. Civilian Natal Government employee 1899-1902. Sergeant Natal Telegraph Corps, Zulu Rebellion 1906. Second Lieutenant, Natal Telegraph Corps 30 May 1907.

William Gordon Coulton

Can anyone help on this one please?
I have recently acquired a no-clasp QSA named “Mr WG Coulton”; outside my normal QSA collecting interests but I was intrigued by the fact that it was to a civilian.

I tried researching this gentleman via TNA but could find no mention of a civilian by that name, so my first thought was that he was a South African resident. However on searching for him elsewhere I found a William Gordon Coulton who was a solicitor in England. Born in 1832 and practicing in Gloucestershire, he was declared bankrupt in 1880; he died in 1902. If it was he who went to South Africa he would have been about 70 years of age, so that seemed unlikely. When I looked on Ancestry I found he had a son, also William Gordon Coulton, and who was also a solicitor. This man was born in 1857, and died in 1915. In 1901 his address was 38 Trinity Street, Handsworth, Staffordshire.

I then found a Mr W Coulton, solicitor, destined to arrive in Cape Town aboard the SS Scot, sailing on 27 Apr 1901. This discovery was followed shortly afterwards by finding the obituary of William Gordon Coulton Jun in The Gloucestershire Echo of 6 April 1915. He had died in March 1915 in Shipston on Stour, and his funeral took place at Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire.

The long obituary stated in its first paragraph:

“Mr Coulton formerly practised at Moreton-in-Marsh and Erdington, and subsequently in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. It was while in the last named country where he rendered assistance on the Commission of Accounts after the South African War, that he met his wife, who happened to be the daughter of a Shipston-on-Stour surgeon”

I cannot find who his wife’s father was, because as yet I am unable to find her maiden name, just her forename of Ellen. However the obituary lists several doctors at the funeral including Drs Taylor, Yelf, and Dewhurst. Dr Yelf was a surgeon in Shipton-on-Stour, but too young to have been Coulton’s father-in-law. Despite looking at a number of references I am unable to establish what the Commission of Accounts was, but if it was set up after the end of hostilities Coulton should not have qualified for a medal, so it may be he did something else to earn it.

My questions for the Forum members, who are far more knowledgeable than me, are these:

What did William Gordon Coulton do to earn his QSA?

What was the Commission of Accounts?

Many thanks in advance for any help that can be rendered!

Nemo