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The same seller is offering this QSA to the 5th Lancers.

Described as "QSA with 6 clasps correctly named to 4736 Corpl W. Austin 5th Lancers, several knocks to rim but they don’t interfere with naming, unofficial rivets between 3rd and 4th clasps and 4th and 5th clasps, graded about very fine. Clasps issued off 2 different rolls.

With 8 copied pages of service record, William Austin was born in Lancing, enlisted 10/11/92, served India Dec 1896-March 1898, then in South Africa until 10/11/01, discharged 9/11/13.'


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Starting price £550

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QSA (4) Elandslaagte, Defence of Ladysmith, Laing’s Nek, Belfast (21294 Bomb: Whlr: M. Douglas, 21st. Bty: R.F.A.)

Maurice Douglas.

QSA verified. Entitled to KSA (2). Discharged 13 July 1903.

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QSA (3) Elandslaagte, Transvaal, Laing's Nek (7115 Dvr: H. Langley. 86th. Bty.: R.F.A.), extremely fine

An interesting Queen’s South Africa Medal awarded to Driver Henry Langley, alias Henry Huggins, Royal Field Artillery, late East Kent Regiment, who suffered from a poor disciplinary record and an ulcer which ultimately terminated his military career

Henry Langley was born around 1871 at Penge, Surrey, and attested for the East Kent Regiment on 7 July 1891. Posted to the 1st Battalion, he suffered a contusion to the toe of his left foot at Woolwich the following day, before serving in India from 27 January 1893-23 August 1898 and being present at the Relief of Chitral in 1895. His service record notes regular run-ins with authority, including 'making use of obscene language' on 28 June 1893, and 'injuring a native's garden' on 21st July 1894, for which he was confined to barracks for three days. The following year he was found asleep at his post and in 1896 he was confined to barracks for 10 days for 'making an improper reply to an N.C.O.' whilst serving with the Royal Artillery.

Posted to South Africa from 27 January 1900-27 August 1900, Langley was invalided on 2 August 1900 and discharged on 6 July 1903 after spending 61 days in hospital suffering from an ulcer.

His Elandslaagte is listed on WO100/139p257 but he is shown with CC OFS and LN on WO100/143p233 which seems more likely. There is a link from the second to the first roll so it would appear this is a transcription error.

If he was posted to South Africa from 27 January 1900, he could not have been at Elandslaagte.

The QSA to Langley sold for a hammer price of £500.

Picture courtesy of Spink

Victoria Cross;
Jubilee 1887;
Afghanistan 1878-80, 2 clasps, Kabul, Kandahar;
Kabul to Kandahar Star 1880.

MIniatures, mounted as worn.

VC London Gazette 18 October 1881: 'For the conspicuous gallantry and coolness displayed by him on the 13th December, 1879, at the attack on the Sherpur Pass, in Afghanistan, in having exposed himself to the full fire of the enemy, and by his example and encouragement rallied the men who, having been beaten back, were, at the moment, wavering at the top of the hill.'

William Henry Dick-Cunyngham was born on 16 June 1851 at Edinburgh, youngest son of Sir William Hanmer Dick-Cunyngham, 8th Baronet of Prestonfield and Lambrughton. Educated at the Trinity College, Glenalmond and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst he was commissioned Ensign in the 92nd Highlanders in February 1872. Promoted Lieutenant in 1873, he served as Adjutant of the Regiment from January 1877-April 1878. Initially serving in Afghanistan in the Transport Department of the Quetta Field Force, he then was in the advance to Kandahar, being in the actions Ali Khel, the expedition to Mardan in November, and the operations in Kabul in December. Winning the Victoria Cross at Takht-i-Shah, Dick-Cunyngham was personally invested by Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle on 1 December 1881.

Serving in command of the 2nd Battalion at Elandslaagte during the Boer War, he was wounded in action in the leg and only returned to action at Ladysmith on 6 January 1900. January. The pipers played him in and the whole regiment turned out and cheered him. Turning out on his horse at 4.20am, he had crossed the iron bridge with “A” Company, waiting for the rest of his command. It was then he was struck in the side by a bullet, which, fired from the far side of the plateau, had travelled more than 3000 yards. He fell mortally wounded from his trusty steed. Buried in the Ladysmith Cemetery and with a cairn upon the spot he fell (with every man of the Battalion offering a stone), he is also commemorated upon the Boer War Memorial, Cheltenham. A family memorial tablet at Duddingston Kirkyard commemorates him and the loss of his only son, St John William Keith Dick-Cunyngham who was drowned near the family home, Philorth Castle, in 1897 while trying to rescue his best friend. His full-size medals are on display in the Gordon Highlanders Museum, Aberdeen

From the next Kaplan auction

QSA (3) Elandslaagte, Defence of Ladysmith, Belfast (4324 Pte W. Perry Devon Regt.)