TOPIC:

David and Mike
The inverted apostrophe reference rang a bell in the dimness! Both my LH examples (group to Sgt. Dale and single to Tpr. Consterdine) have the inverted apostrophe. Interestingly, so does a single to Lovat's Scouts; as well as the same feature in the naming on the KSA to a QSA/KSA pair (KSA naming to Lovat's Scouts I.Y.).
I wonder if the "slip up" was due to the proper apostrophe wearing out (it/they would have had a lot of use with the naming of colonial QSAs) and a block with an inverted comma substituted in the naming machine. Probably no medal recipient ever noticed, anyway!
Best regards
IL.

Picture courtesy of the London Medal Co

QSA (3) Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Johannesburg; (TPR: C.L. BELL. LUMSDEN’S HORSE.);
1914 Star; (2.LIEUT: C.L. BELL. 3/HRS.);
British War Medal and Victory Medal; (2.LIEUT. C.L. BELL.)

Together with the card boxes of issue for the Great War awards, and the remnants of the forwarding envelope addressed to: ‘C.L. Bell Esq, Jacobs, Sedlescombe, Sussex.

Claude Leonard Bell was born on 26th August 1876 in Calcutta, West Bengal, India, the son of Peter Henry Bell and his wife Anne, but as of 1881 is shown as living in Eastbourne, Sussex, where he was probably under schooling, and as of 1891 was living with his family in Kensington, London. Having then followed in his family footsteps and gone out to India, he was most probably a tea planter in West Bengal, but with the outbreak of the Boer War in South Africa, then joined as a Trooper the Lumsden’s Horse, a unit comprising British Indian volunteer’s who joined from various units of the Indian Volunteer Force, and who as a whole came under the command of Lieutenant Colonel D.L. Lumsden.

As such Bell then saw service in South Africa on operations in the Cape Colony and the Orange Free State, and was present in action at Johannesburg on 31st May 1900. Bell married Alice Gertrude Thompson on 19th October 1904 at the Church of St Mary’s in Chester. With the outbreak of the Great War, he received a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant into the 3rd King’s Own Hussars, and then saw service out on the Western Front with the British Expeditionary Force from 6th November 1914, before resigning his commission due to ill health on 10th April 1915, he having been employed as an interpreter whilst at the front. Bell latterly lived in Sedlescombe, Sussex, and died at Wastbourne on 30th January 1964.

The group to Brigadier General F S Montague-Bates.

CB
CMG
DSO GV
QSA (4) CC OFS Joh SA01 (Cpl Lumsden's Horse)
1914 Star and Bar (Capt E Surrey Regt)
BWM and VM with MID (Brig Gen)
France, Legion d'Honneur, 4th Class
France Croix de Guerre with Palme

With miniatures.

Dealer unknown. Date unknown £2,350.

Picture courtesy of DNW

OBE (Mil, 1st type), HM London 1918;
QSA (3) Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Johannesburg (166 Tpr: T. B. Nicholson, Lumsden’s Horse)

OBE London Gazette 3 June 1919.

Thomas Brinsley Nicholson was a coffee planter from Yercand. He served in the Boer War as a Trooper in Lumsden’s Horse, being present in the actions at Karee Siding, Houtnek, Vet River and Zand River, together with those around Johannesburg and Pretoria.

He was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the West India Regiment in July 1900 and was promoted Lieutenant the following year. He was appointed Lieutenant and Adjutant of the 2nd battalion W.I.R. in Sierra Leone in 1904, attaining the rank of Captain in 1913. In the Great War he served on the staff of the Governor-General of Jamaica as Deputy Assistant Adjutant and Quarter Master General. Promoted Major in 1919, he received the OBE for his war services.

The map from Pearse's book showing the area covered by Lumsden's Horse

Sir Patrick Playfair, CIE.


Lord Curzon

Source: Pearse's The history of Lumsden's Horse