County: Essex
Issued on: Departure
Date of presentation: 14/01/1902
Number issued: 1
Gold medal, suitably inscribed, to:
Cape Mounted Police –
???? Trooper J.H. SMITH
Presentation made by Bro. W.E. Hill, on behalf of fellow members of the Welcome Home of Grays Lodge, U.O.T.A. Sons of Phoenix.
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Grays & Tilbury Gazette, 18th January 1902
A successful send-off was given by the Welcome Home of Grays Lodge, U.O.T.A. Sons of Phoenix, under the chairmanship of Brother W.E. Hill, at the Victoria Coffee Tavern, on Tuesday evening, to Brother J.H. SMITH, who is leaving to join the Cape Mounted Police in South Africa. An excellent dinner was provided by Mr Foster, the manager, which prepared the company of about 60 to enjoy the concert, in which the following artists took part: Mrs S. Dines, Misses A. Bannister, Beard, E. Tyler, Brothers E.J. Tyler, A.J. Jones, T. Whittey, and C.J. Hopkins. Brother W. Ford assisted with the gramophone and Miss E. Dunn presided at the piano. During the concert the Chairman presented Brother SMITH on behalf of the Lodge, with a gold medal, engraved by Mr Boatman, emblematical of the Order, and wished him every success in the new sphere of life he is about to enter and hoping that when he returned the Lodge might be able to give him a welcome home. Brothers Sheppard, Hopkins, Coleman, Claxton, and others spoke in similar terms. At the close the Phoenix members carried the hero of the evening home.
