TOPIC:

Hi

I bought the Bayly group from Spink (Sept 1986 auction). In the light of what the Boer War VC went for last week at DNW I perhaps should have "invested" in the Ind group!!

Henk

Hi All

I have been cleaning up over the long weekend in South Africa and found this group I mentioned earlier

Tpr Hickman &th Dragoon Guards. He served in the Dragoons, then went to find his fortune in America and served in the 1st Texas Regt, then was recalled to the colours for service in the Boer war. Nice with the Imperial service medal hanging on the end.

Munroe

sorry all for typo

Its 7th Dragoon Guards

Munroe

Hi Munroe

A delectable combination!! Could you find anything about his US service?
In what cpacity did he get the ISM?

Henk

Dear Henk

Yes I have his attestation papers for his US service plus confirmations of the medals awarded. The medals are numbered and he added his name and regiment on the rim. Each US medal is confirmed. His ISM was for service to the postal services.

What was nice about this group as apposed to the other one I showed, is that he did his time with the 7th Dragoon before he served in the US army. The was recalled for the Boer war.

Its fun group

Kind regards

Munroe

QSA, bars CC, OFS, Tvl(Sir A. Milner, G.C.B., G.C.M.G., High Commissioner); Jubilee 1897; United States of America, Distinguished Service Medal (Army), rim officially numbered, '672'

Hi Munroe and others

I have one group that includes a QSA with an American medal : that to Lord Alfred Milner, High Commissioner of South Africa 1897-1908. In my opinion he is the man who contributed by far the most to the outbreak of the 2nd Boer War. It would also seem that he was a "Milner medal collector"!!

When the group was sold at Spink's Boer War Sale (Oct 1899) it was noted that
"No figure looms larger over the Boer War than Alfred George Milner, the 1st Viscount Milner of St. James's London and Cape Town, [K.G.], [G.C.B.], [G.C.M.G.]. His extraordinary career embodies the origins of the struggle, the course of the War itself and the reconstruction of South Africa after peace through to the creation of the Union in 1910".

Milner went to great lengths in his efforts to also be issued with a KSA. King Edward expressed the opinion that he could have a no bar KSA "if by any means he could be brought within the conditions which govern its award", but the Army Council decided in 1906 that "having regard to the stringency of the conditions" he was not entitled to receive it.

He was appointed Secretary of State for War in April 1918 and presided over the Army Council for the remainder of WWI. After the "Khaki Election" (Dec 1918) he was appointed Colonial Secretary, in which capacity he attended the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. He was one of the signatories of the Treaty of Versailles.

The American award was, inter alia, for the part played by Milner at Versailles: this time he successfully pulled strings to get it. In the Churchill Papers at Cambridge there is a letter (dated 30 April 1919) from Lord Milner to Lord Stamfordham asking him to get the King to agree to Milner's acceptance of the United States Distinguished Service Medal despite the Foreign Office regulation that Ministers of the Crown cannot accept foreign decorations. Milner argued that military co-operation with the United States during the war was an exceptional case.

The letter had the desired effect and he could add a 3rd medal to what he already had.

Henk