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Hello Aaron

Thank you for the update, excellent news regarding finding the medals.
If I remember correctly there were 2 medal rolls? One for his Transvaal clasp and the other roll recorded his Orange Free State, Transvaal and 1901 date clasp along with his ignominy remark. If you should decide to add his other clasps and a ribbon for his QSA? Original clasps can be purchased .
Thanks again for sharing the update.

Dave.....

Hello Aaron,

Dave F is quite right that the 8th Hussars sailed to South Africa during February 1900. They actually sailed from the Albert Docks on 17th February aboard Transport 57 SS "Sicilian". They consisted of 19 Officers, 586 warrant officers, non-commissioned officers and men, 29 chargers and 458 troop horses but Private 4809 W McCombe was not amongst them. I presume he was still at the Curragh and part of the 500 strong Reserve Squadron. Within months the effective fighting strength of the 8th Hussars in SA had been halved and the Reserve Squadron were called upon and they went out in several batches. Private 4809 W McCombe went out with the fourth batch or draft as they were called - so he embarked at Queenstown on 3rd March 1901 aboard Transport 38 SS "Idaho" and disembarked in South Africa 1st April 1901 - "Houston we have a problem" as the 1901 Census was held on 31st March 1901.

You do not have to take my word for the above as you can buy a copy of "The King's Royal Irish Hussars - Diary of the South African War 1900-1902" as I did from Amazon in September 2022 at a cost of £14.50 (no p&p due to Prime membership). I believe you can also obtain it from the publishers via www.naval-military-press.com

To save you a lot of tedious searching you will find your GGF listed halfway down the left-hand column on page 85. As far as I am aware this is the only mention he receives.

I purchased the book to see if the offence and court martial of Smethwickian Private 4244 Percy George Payne received a mention - it did not and I am pretty sure the term "court martial" does not appear in the book - however, I would still recommend its purchase. Percy went out with the first draft in June 1900.

Congratulations on finding his medals - it took me several emails to persuade a cousin to look in his loft and discover not only our Grandfather's WW1 medals but lots of postcards he had collected in France and some of which he had sent home from the western front.

Regards, David.

Thank you for your efforts Smethwick and Dave F, I have ordered a ribbon for the medal and a copy of "The King's Royal Irish Hussars - Diary of the South African War 1900-1902" for my records, in terms of the OFS (Orange Free State) I have not seen the medal roll for this which states OFS clasp entitlement so I will hold fire on this but intend to look at this in depth and if a subsequent roll shows OFS I will buy an OFS clasp (replica) to complete the medal as near as possible to what he would have received.

The OFS clasp thoughts came from a screen shot attached (dropbox link) which suggested OFS Transvaal, QSA 01 and KSA 02 as per the attached word document, so am I looking for another medal somewhere else or is this some computer interpretation of a medal roll gone wrong, did they get both medals if in service for a longer period.

In regards to the 1901 census, its attached yes its William McCombe and the same same age (20 = 1880+/- DOB), when i started research i worked backwards but never rechecked consistency or on this record i missed the obvious. 1 wrong mother name, should be Mary not Margaret and 2 his father Samuel was alive at this point until 1928 so should have been on census and this mother Margaret is listed as a widow, and William is present when he should not be given what we know as almost certain now. So i have discounted this census as a coincidence. The correct record is this one which has his mother and father with correct ages and one of his siblings Samuel jnr and critically William is not present (he has left for SA) is as per the link below, so this record matches on a number of points and resolves the 1901 census issue.

www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/190...rcorn_Place/1529131/

The last thing, William must have served from 1899 through to June 1905, i think its safe to assume that if you assault your commanding officer the British army in 1900s they would have a court martial (trial) convened with exceptional speed and you would be dealt with promptly, I cannot see them waiting one or two years. So in my mind he likely enlisted in 1899 left for SA completed service without incident because the QSA 01 medal roll makes no mention of withdrawal / withholding of the medal which it does for at least a couple of others on the same page he then returns Ireland / England and is charged with "Assaulting a CO" "Impeding Transport" sometime in late 1903 but more likely 1904, they conven a court martial at Aldershot June 1904 (note court martial take place in a number of locations based on the charge sheet for others (England, Ireland, Jamacia) so i think more logical that the offense occurred at or near Aldershot rather than a more remote location. This makes more sense for the timing, location of trial, likely speed in convening a court martial and no reference to this issue in medal roll for QSA, I am sure they would have withheld the medal / clasp or withdrawn it if the offense occurred in SA. I am almost certain this issue with Military Justice did not occur in SA, possibly home barracks in Ireland, more likely at Aldershot and a slim possibility on the transport ship heading home.

If you had a conspiratorial mind maybe he was forced to surrender a KSA 02 medal with OFS Clasp because of conduct on the troopship (impeding escort) heading home which landed at Portsmouth (UK Navy HQ for generations) which is not far from Aldershot….. about 50 miles where a trial was convened…. Got drunk on a troop ship heading home, assaulted XO and caused uproar on boat aka impending escort (as in the troop ship not movement of troops on horseback) Welcome home William….. one year in Military Prison and we will take the KSA 02 and Clasp…

www.forces-war-records.co.uk/records/181...british-army-hussars

www.dropbox.com/sh/y9lq8fx851z3cow/AABIS...8FFl04cnvBVBQFa?dl=0

I just found the second listing for Mr McCombe, its in two blocks, one is 8th R I Hussars and then it starts again 8th Hussars... so why 1904 or was this just an administrative catch up, oh well...

Hi,

Just to close out this discussion my Great Uncle lent me William McCombe war medal set including 1901 QSA. I had them mounted by a professional medal mounter (if that is such a job title) replacing the ribbons (retaining the old) straightening the suspender on the QSA which was off centre and otherwise a very light clean to take off the dirt and old Brasso (not me).

The replacement ribbons have that holographic river effect which is achieved by heat treatment to slightly soften and distort the ribbon and the QSA ribbon is apparently from an original reel so I have gone to some lengths to try to get these “right” but also secure so they could be worn.



Controversially I have added two Clasps to the QSA, it had an existing Transvaal Clasp and I added a 1901 South Africa and Orange Free State Clasps, these were re manufactured in silver but not riveted in place. William has the 1901 and OFS listed on his medal records for clasps but not being issued and most likely for reasons already discussed which I am not going to re traverse.



My son (13) is a Bag Piper at Saint Kentergern Boy School / College and was asked to Pipe at the ANZAC (our version of Remembrance Day) Parade and Service, it had been one of my hopes that he would get to wear these medals at least once in his life and this has now come to pass.







William and Martha and Children in 1914 (Boer War Ribbon Left Breast Pocket)



William and Martha Late Life - 1950s - Moved to New Zealand (Retirement Years)



That really ends my journey, I had hoped to find Williams enlistment papers for the Boer War and I have asked National Archives but they could not be found. A person here has a relative in the same unit 8 KRIH with a service number only 30 odd digits different and he found enlistment papers, so I am hoping these still exist. Thanks for your support.

Aaron