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Picture courtesy of Spink

Sudan (4120 Pte P. Towler 2/Lan. Fus.);
QSA (1) RoL (4120 Pte. P. Towler, Lanc: Fus:);
Khedive's Sudan (1) Khartoum (4120. Pte. P. Towler. 2nd. L.F.)

The catalogue erroneously states the clasp is DoL.

P. Towler was wounded at Spion Kop on 24 January 1900 whilst serving with the 2nd Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers.

The Battle was little short of a massacre for the men of the Lancashire Fusiliers. As the fog lifted and Boer shells began to reign down upon the plateau commanded by British troops, Commandant Henrik Prinsloo, responding to Botha's call for reinforcements, led his 88-man strong Carolina Commando onto Aloe Knoll, 400 yards east of the British position. From there, Prinsloo's marksmen unleashed a deadly fire on the unsuspecting men of the Lancashire Fusiliers, who were on the extreme right flank. The 'Khakis' as the Boers called them, never knew what hit them - seventy were later found dead with bullet holes in the right sides of their heads.

Grimly, the British held on to a 400-yard-wide battlefield. The men in the ranks squirmed into every square inch that they could find in the rocky topsoil, but it did little good - Boer artillery shells dismembered entire files of soldiers as they lay whilst the sharpshooters dealt with those who dared raise their heads off the ground.

According to The Spion Kop Despatches, the Principal Medical Officer reported at 7.30 p.m. on 24 January that 150 wounded had been brought in, that every available stretcher of 4th, 10th and 11th Brigades had been sent, and 24 ambulances as well. The wounded were brought down to the foot of Spion Kop and transferred to ambulances, which made their way to the field hospital at Wright's Farm.

QSA to Towler verified on WO100/179p93. He was invalided 31 March 1900.

Picture courtesy of DNW

QSA (1) RoL ((5731 Pte. W. Carroll. Rl: Lanc: Regt.)

Private W. Carroll died of wounds received in action at Spion Kop on 24 January 1900.

The regiment suffered 3 officers and 55 men either killed in action or died of wounds received at Spion Kop.

Picture courtesy of Morton and Eden

QSA (1) RoL (138747 P.O. 2. Cl. E. B. Horner. H.M.S. Terrible.), officially engraved in sloping capitals.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Eli Benjamin Horner, R.N., is confirmed on the medal roll as having served aboard H.M.S. Terrible as part of the Naval Brigade at the Relief of Ladysmith. The roll also notes that he died in February 1900 of Enteric Fever, at Frere. He appears on the Witu Expedition aboard HMS Boadicea some years earlier, being entitled to an East and West Africa Medal with clasp ‘Witu 1890’.

Anderson and Garland sold this single clasp QSA to the RDF this morning for a hammer price of £220. Private Pescod was slightly wounded at Colenso.




Pictures courtesy of Anderson and Garland.

QSA (1) Relief of Ladysmith (704 Private J. Pescod, Royal Dublin Fusiliers)

A particularly nice medal, interestingly, Joseph Pescod was certainly a South African veteran, having already served as part of the garrison between the 18th of May 1897 until the 3rd of March the following year ,prior to his transfer to the reserve.

djb wrote: Anderson and Garland sold this single clasp QSA to the RDF this morning for a hammer price of £220. Private Pescod was slightly wounded at Colenso.

Pictures courtesy of Anderson and Garland.

QSA (1) Relief of Ladysmith (704 Private J. Pescod, Royal Dublin Fusiliers)