TOPIC:

Here's one of my favourites:



Harry Baden POWIS:
- 181 Trooper, Lumsden’s Horse;
- 7589 Ceylon Volunteer Company, (Ceylon Planters’ Rifle Corps), attached 2nd Bn Gloucestershire Regiment;
- Trooper, Punjab Light Horse;
- Captain, Supply and Transport Corps; 1st Government Camel Corps; 51st Sillidar Camel Corps;
- Superintendent of Indian Police, (Combined Cadre: Punjab, Delhi, NWFP, Baluchistan)


Lot Details:
(Seven) Queen’s South Africa Medal, four clasps: Cape Colony, South Africa 1902, Orange Free State, Johannesburg, correctly named in sans serif block caps 181 TPR : H.B. POWIS LUMSDEN’S HORSE; British War Medal 1914-20 and Inter-Allied Victory Medal (British version), pair correctly named in sans serif block caps CAPT. H.B. POWIS.; India General Service Medal (1908), with clasp Afghanistan NWF 1919, correctly named in sans serif block caps CAPT. H.B. POWIS, S.&T.C.; 1911 Delhi Durbar Medal, unnamed as awarded; 1935 King George V Silver Jubilee Medal, unnamed as awarded; Volunteer Long Service Medal, King George V version, named in running script Trooper H. Powis. Pjb. Lt. Horse.
Note: QSA with CC; OFS; and Johannesberg clasps all awarded for service with Lumsden’s Horse; SA 1902 awarded for subsequent service with Ceylon Planters Rifles Corps service in South Africa; hence, incorrect ordering of clasps and loose fitting of SA 1902.


Personal Details:

• Date of Birth: 4 November 1879
• Place of Birth: Ambala, (Umbala), Bengal, India
• Father: Charles Belton Powis, (b. 17 Nov 1852)
• Mother: Jane Elizabeth Beckett
• Education: Bishop Cotton School, Simla, India (?)
• Spouse: Muriel Brabson, (b. 1885; d. 3 Oct 1957)
• Date of Marriage: 17 Dec 1908; Lahore, Bengal, India
• Date of Death: 31 July 1949
• Place of Death: St Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands

Cheers,

Glen,
In Our Dominion of the North

Glen
The History of Lumsden's Horse shows H.W.POWIS as being a tutor by occupation and address as Simla. He served in No.2 Section of B Company and is noted as having taken part in LH's baptism of fire at OSPRUIT (HOUTNEK) 30041900. LH were acting as a scouting screen for 8th M.I. When I get the time I will post a pic of a group named to the Sgt. of LH's MG section; who covered 2sec. B Coy at a critical time - coming into action at 1000y.
Regards
IL.

Wombat wrote: Thank you Frank, this medal group has always intrigued me.
On his War & Vic (SANLC) one of his ranks is given as Linguist. So for many years I thought this skill would enable Blundell to pass through the Boer lines as one of their own, making him a good choice as a messenger, (Dispatches).
Before I left England, I took this medal to a few medal meetings, and it was always discussed with fervour.
There was never any decision settled upon. Like yourself there was lots of opinions, but we never managed to prove anything.
I like to look at it from the more romantic side, thinking he could have taken messages out of Kimberley and then led the relief column back.
He disappeared in 1900 and I have somewhere in his paperwork the information that he got married in 1900, so I also wonder if he married a Boer Lass?
I have had this group over 25 years and I still get so much enjoyment out of the speculation this group brings.
Wombat,
James.

Hello James

This is a splendid group and a good example of the enigmatic issue of clasps we encounter every so often.

He may very well have been correctly entitled to the Def & Rel clasps - but disallowed by the AO as Frank has pointed out. I wonder why this rule was made - surely there were not many men who qualified for both and it would recognise particularly hazardous work in sneaking in or out of a siege.

Service with SANLC particularly interests me. His skills as a linguist would have been for African languages not Afrikaans - the body of the SANLC were Africans not Boers.

Medals to SANLC NCOs and Officers come up regularly but not in such splendid groups. I always look at them as they very often had prior service.

Is the Star named to DEOVR?

Regards
Meurig

OSAKSA wrote:

Hi
I was fortunate in buying this from the late Paul Fauche some 25 years ago. I have not seen a similar pair since.

On the QSA roll he is noted as "Telegraph Guard"

Henk

Hello Henk

Splendid! Some years I found in the Colonial Attestations at WO126/149 & 157 (Town Guards and District Mounted Troops) two papers for the Somaliland Burgher Contingent.

One was a Christofel Jacobus Dreyer whose "Trade or calling" was "late Staats Artillerie". He claimed his ABO and is on the roll for the Somaliland Burgher Contingent.

That would be an unusual and exceedingly rare pair too!

Regards
Meurig

Thanks very much. That's very kind of you.

I'm always very grateful for any additional information regarding any aspect of the life and career of a recipient of one of my medal groups!

Cheers,

Glen,
In Our Dominion of the North

The Boer War DSO and double CMG group to Brig Gen C R Johnson, RE

The catalogue description says the KSA is unnamed which is a shame.

CMG STAR (TWO NECK BADGES) and ribbon, VICTORIAN DSO (part of enamel replaced) with ribbon, QUEEN’S SOUTH AFRICA MEDAL with five bars, (TRANSVAAL, DREIFONTEIN, PAARDEBERG, MODDER RIVER, BELMONT), KING’S SOUTH AFRICA MEDAL with two bars, replacement unnamed 1914-1915 TRIO, FRENCH LEGION OF HONOUR, RUSSIA, STANISLAVS GOLD.