TOPIC:

Issued for service in 1902.

QSA (1) SA02 to 8769 Pte. C. Parker, 1st Regt. 10th N.Z. Cont.

Pte Parker died in March 1974, aged 91 years, and is buried in Gisborne Cemetery, New Zealand.


Picture courtesy of DNW

In their next sale, Wellington Auctions are advertising a possible incomplete single clasp QSA with SA02 clasp.

What is interesting is their description of the clasp as the King's bar. I hadn't ever noticed that description before.

Queens South Africa Medal, bar South Africa 1902. 391 SERGT. J. HART, K.R.R.C. Copy Rolls 4th Battalion King's Royal Rifle Corps shows entitlement to bars for Orange Free State (crossed through) & South Africa 1901 (all 4th Btn. crossed through) & 1902. Very unusual Queen's Medal with King's bar only. Entitled I.G.S. bar N.E. Frontier 1891. Contact marks, Nearly very fine

David
In a moment of largesse I obtained a printed roll of TMI from my mini CD and I have to say that I find the printed roll a darn sight easier to read than scrolling! Anyway, towards the end of the TMI roll is a section entitled
"Seventh Portion", "Kings Clasp Roll",TMI" and date stamped "Discharge Depot CapeTown 26Oct 1904. Clearly what are now termed Date Bars were known as "Kings Clasps" at that time.
Regards
IL.

That's fascinating. Many thanks Ian.

Forum members
QSAs with only the King's Clasp for 1902 are pretty uncommon; most I have seen have been to NZ units with the very very occasional Aust. Comm. Horse example.
The illustrated and rather battered example shown here was encounteded recently in Sydney. Named as follows: "2704 Tpr. R.J.JACKSON, Thorneycroft's M.I." it was found hard to pass over.
Quickly leafing through my printed TMI roll, I duly found that 2704 R.J.JACKSON had a whole page to himself; the roll was dated 10th June, 1905 at the Cape Town Discharge Depot,and the medal with 1902 clasp was issued on 4th January, 1906 with address shown as "Croydon Avenue, South Croydon, Sydney, NSW". Oddly enough, reasonably close to my current residence.
The roll was emphatic that this man had not previously applied for the QSA medal, was not entitled to CC/OFS/Tv or 1901 clasps, was not entitled to the KSA medal but had previously served in "2KFScouts".
2704 R.J.JACKSON's attestation paper revealed that Robert James JACKSON had enlisted for the TMI at Durban on 20th March, 1902 and was allocated to F Coy of that hard-fighting unit. His apparent age was a tender 18 years. Of course, we know that the ABW only had a matter of about 2.5 months to run before peace was declared; clearly any service JACKSON undertook would have been in Natal (no clasp) and during 1902.
It was thought prudent to check the roll of 2KFS just-in-case - but no R.J.JACKSON therein.
The TMI roll in Robin Drooglever's book "Thorneycroft's Unbuttoned" shows that 2704 R.J.JACKSON actually served to 30th June, 1902. He is also shown as serving later in the 1st Australian Imperial Force and died of wounds in July of 1916. A check of the relevant enlistment document in the NAA shows that - whilst the names were identical - the persons were not (age and stated place of residence did not tally).
Thus, eighteen year old Robert James JACKSON doubtless travelled across the sea in search of adventure, joined a far-famed fighting unit and at least eventually got his Queen's Medal with King's clasp.
Regards to all who have read this far.
IL.