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".
