1901, Strijdenburg
CLEMENTS, J J, Corporal, "was", says Colonel M F Rimington, "South African born, and of splendid physique, a good boxer and always ready for a 'scrap'". He served in the South African War, and was awarded the Victoria Cross, while serving under Major Rimington, of the Inniskilling Dragoons, with Rimington's Guides, who were called Rimington's 'Tigers' from the strip of spotted skin round their hats. Corporal Clements was decorated in London on 1 July, 1902, at the same time as Lieutenant F E Bell, VC [London Gazette, 4 June, 1901]: "J J Clements, Corporal, Rimington's Guides. On the 24th February 1901, near Strijdenburg, when dangerously wounded through the lungs, and called upon to surrender, Corporal Clements threw himself into the midst of a party of five Boers, shooting three of them with his revolver, and thereby causing the whole party to surrender to himself and two unwounded men of Rimington's Guides".
