TOPIC:

Doug,

With reference to the 8 bar group, the situation is that someone will purchase it at that price.
Be it a specialist collector to enhance the collection or a novice collector who is attracted to the 8 bars.
This I think will always set the bar for dealer prices, the more experienced buyer will wait for the "good deal" that I think can still be found.
What are your and the forums views?

Paul

Doug wrote: Frank

I really do like your optimism when it comes to you stating that you can get almost anything as long as you are prepared to pay for it and when you look around, you are not far out. At the OMRS a couple of weeks ago, there was an 8 bar QSA and WW1 trio with original ribbons to a corporal in the RAMC, all NATAL Field Force operations, but it was, and still is, £750, which proves your point. It is worth around £575 if you are not a specialist RAMC collector, even with the trio. Still, I could have got £20 knocked off it!!

Doug.

Hi there, I know this is a long shot but I have a few Elandslaagte clasps incl. one to a wounded in action and a died of disease amongst others.

Are you still looking to exchange?

Kind regards
Ian

Paul

Totally agree. You can see with the established dealers how they do exactly that. They know with their long standing buyers that they want good value, that's why they don't offer some items to us straight away, because they are aware that we know the values and the rarity of the medals, unlike some new to the hobby.

Having said that, some do call with a good specimen and a price to suit and really try it on because they know you want it!!

Doug.

Hi Doug, I'm looking for anything unusual i.e. KIA, wounded, Elandslaagte, Def/Relief of Mafeking etc. 7,8 or 9 clasp as well
Not looing to sell but rather swap or purchase.

Do you have anything that fits the above?

The group to Battery Quartermaster Serjeant J. G. J. Lucas, Royal Field Artillery


Picture courtesy of DNW

QSA (4) Eland DoL Belf OFS (7738 Sgt., 42nd Bty. R.F.A.)
KSA (2) (57738 Serjt., R.F.A.)
1914-15 Star (37590 B.Q.M. Sjt., R.F.A.)
BWM & VM (37580 B.Q.M. Sjt., R.A.)

Jesse G. J. Lucas served as a Sergeant in the Boer War, firstly with the 42nd Battery and latterly with the 17th Battery R.F.A. In the Great War as BQMS in the RFA he entered France on 19 May 1915. With copied roll extracts and MIC.

I remember handling this ILH group a few years ago when it used to belong to Terry in Wales but there was no KSA back then.


Picture courtesy of DNW

QSA (5) CC Eland DoL OFS Tr (Lieut., I.L.H.)
KSA (2) (Lieut., Imp. Lt. Horse)
1914-15 Star (Lieut., 10/Can. Inf.)
BWM & VM (Major)
USA Spanish War Service Medal 1898, the edge officially numbered ‘30475’

Seymour Norton-Taylor, who was born at Bovey Tracey, Devon in November 1878, first saw active service as a Private in ‘C’ Company, 1st Regiment of Florida Infantry in the Spanish War of 1898, having enlisted in that corps at Tampa, Florida that May. Discharged at Tallahassee at the end of the same year, he next travelled to South Africa, where he enlisted in the 1/Imperial Light Horse and was present at Elandslaagte and the defence of Ladysmith, and participated in later operations after being commissioned in the 2nd Battalion.

Having then made his way to Canada where he worked as a rancher, Norton-Taylor volunteered for the Overseas Expeditionary Force at Valcartier, Quebec in August 1914 and was quickly commissioned as a Lieutenant in the 10th Battalion Canadian Infantry. Embarked for England in the following month, and thence for France, he was wounded by shrapnel in his right hand on 13 March 1915, and evacuated to the U.K.

Rejoining his unit in the Field as a Temporary Captain a month or two later, he was seriously wounded by an explosion in his dugout at Ploegsteert on 23 October 1915:

‘During the month of October 1915, Private Clutterbuck found a nose-cap of a shell. He took it into the dugout, where he accidentally dropped it. An explosion followed with the result that Captain Norton-Taylor, who was in the dugout, was severely wounded in the legs and Private Clutterbuck was also severely wounded - he afterwards died as a result of his injuries’ (an official witness statement refers).

Rushed to a Casualty Clearing Station at Bailleul, and thence to the Red Cross Hospital at Le Touquet, both of Norton-Taylor’s legs were amputated below the knee, but, after gangrene set in, it was necessary to amputate the right leg above the knee. Yet the latter still caused problems by the time he was strong enough to be transferred to a hospital in the UK, and a further ‘shortening operation’ took place in December 1916. Indeed Norton-Taylor did not return to duty until May 1917, having by then mastered the use of his artificial limbs, and was seconded to the Adjutant-General’s Branch as, appropriately enough, a Hospital Representative.

He was honourably discharged as a Major in October 1919, and, given his terrible wounds, lived to a ripe old age, dying at Westgate, Kent in December 1963.