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Hello Mike, a good pair of medals,
The QSA and clasps were issued from the Natal Carbineers roll in WO100/260 page 97, moreover he is shown on both WO100/283 page 252 and WO100/242 page 181, as you would expect.
You may find his Colonial Scouts attestation in WO126/30 and WO127 confirms service in the Scouts from the 17th of January 1900 to the 21st of March 1900 and with the Carbineers from the 29th of March 1900 to the 9th of October 1900.
The BSA Co medal is really quite a rare one too, I like these a lot, however, the only issue I have is the 1897 clasp, WO100/77 shows the entitlement to be the 1897 medal to 291 Corporal Arthur B Richardson BSAP and not the clasp, it would appear to have been sent home, to his sister, Miss Richardson, at "Ballydawley" Cheam Surrey, a possible way to go, would be to look at any address he gave when joining the Colonial Scouts.
The worst possible case here is that you have two medals to two differant men, in both WO100/77 and the published rolls I can't see a connection between Trooper Richardson of the Salisbury Field Force and Corporal Richardson of the British South Africa Police, they appear to be differant people and certainly two differant medals, but, even so, you still have two very good medals, moreover, I assume an original Mashonaland clasp too, so as long as the naming is correct, you do, of course have to be very careful with BSA Co medals, there was an idiot who got hold of a number of original blank unnamed examples and then had them named over a generation ago, he was wanted by the Rhodesian Special Branch, but, they never did manage to grab his collar, very remiss of them, to be sure!
Kind regards Frank Kelley

Hi Frank......

The one bad thing about this trip is that somewhere along the way I lost my camera so therefore this picture is from my cell phone.....

Mike

Hello Mike,
I just sent a pm
Frank

Mike

That is a very rare rosette and a great addition to a great pair of medals.

Regards
Brett

PS Hopefully, the person who has your camera will post your pictures on the Internet. A honeymoon couple recently had the photos in their lost camera posted on the Internet, so there are still considerate people in the world.

Hello Mike,
I am sorry if I appear to you to be rather circumspect, it does seem to be a family thing and is sometimes mistaken for reticence.
With BSA Co medals, many people use the published rolls of Colin Owen and Don Forsyth, I prefer not to, really because of the errors in transcription, but, one of the problems is that WO100/77 is, well, a bit of a mess really, you have main rolls, supplementary rolls and distribution rolls etc, moreover, I don't have to, although it is now partially digitised, I had my own copy made some twenty years ago now, in several bound volumes and I always work with these.
Anyway, I'm happy with your man and I believe him to be Arthur Richardson, there was an issue with the clasp, but, really the faint annotation on the 1897 Mashonaland medal roll does suggest he is the same man who is shown as Trooper A Richardson Salisbury Field Force.
Richardson may have joined the Salisbury FF after June 1896, however, he might well have served before in the Rhodesia Horse Volunteers or the Salisbury Horse.
In late June or very early July, both they and a body of local Burgers merged together and became the Salisbury Field Force, from memory, they were disbanded in mid October, the following year.
I suggest it was after this point he joined the British South Africa Police, perhaps even as a junior NCO, he is however shown as 291 Corporal and as I have already said, the address given as far as the entitlement to the Mashonaland 1897 clasp was that for Cheam in Surrey.
If this group was mine, I would now consult WO126/30 at Kew, if his attestation into the Colonial Scouts has survived it might well make for very interesting reading indeed and you might see an immediate and obvious link.
Moreover, because of his service in the Mtshwti Rifle Association, followed by his time in the Colonial Scouts and wartime service in the Carbineers, I think you are looking at a man who went on from this to be a local Natal gentleman, so I think I would also consult Jenny Duckworth in Pietermaritzburg as soon as you can.
Regarding his time in Natal, you might be forgiven for thinking it must be really rare, but, if so, it is certainly far from unique.
As you may recall, I was myself, last year, the focus of a number of jokes because I was the only member of this forum, indeed, I dare say too, the only person in the civilised world, who did not have a Natal Carbineer in his collection!
Anyway, I have since been able to just go out here and buy several examples without any problems at all, moreover, I make mention of this only because the very first one was a man, who, just like your man, was a member of a Rifle Association, then a member of the Colonial Scouts, Number 2 Troop of "D" Squadron, which I think from memory was the Mooi River Troop and just like Ricardson, he too, had served until disbandment and then joined the Natal Carbineers.
So there you are, Richardson was not alone in doing this sort of thing.
You could and should take this much further,
Kind regards Frank

Owens published roll, note the vertical columns and the entries for Richardson, appears to be differant men and two differant medals!





The originals for A Richardson Salisbury FF

Now then Mike, the Mashonaland 1897 roll.







Note the horizontal dash before his BSAP number 291, page 193 is where Richardson is shown on the main medal roll for the 1896 medal, I checked the 1896 Supplementary roll for the Salisbury Field Force and he is not on it!