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LinneyI wrote: According to "Forgotten Heroes - Zulu and Basuto Wars" by Roy Dutton, in the listing for Griqualand West Volunteer Artilley is shown Gunner Whelan W.T. ; earning the SAGS with clasp 1878. It appears the medal was "returned". Could be your GGF..

An interesting find. The 1878 clasp covered two brief campaigns which took place that year :
* the P(h)okwane campaign , and
* the Griqua campaign.

As both were fought in the Griqualand West/Bechuanaland region, it could easily explain the family belief that Whelan served in Bechuanaland -- but it would have been in 1878 and not 1885 (when, according to another thread in this forum, he was living in Kroonstad in the OFS).