TOPIC:

Frank Kelly always make reference to the early joiners from the Colonial side of things in the Boer War and I was fortunate to acquire a medal to such a chap yesterday.

QSA to 16 (very low number) Tpr. H. Massey, Imperial Light Infantry. These chaps were quite active on Spioenkop if memory serves and Massey would have been there too having enlisted in November 1899.

The medal has the clasps Tugela Heights, Relief of Ladysmith, Transvaal and Laing's Nek

Regards

Rory

Hello Rory,
That's nice, you know I honestly do think these are starting to disappear from the market place these days, perfectly understandable in itself I suppose, given what these men had actually been doing and the fact more people do collect with a particular focus in mind, I should be delighted with that if I were you.
Regards Frank

A cracking unit.

Rory, your memory is right, of all the units on Spion Kop the ILI had the highest percentage of their total number involved than any other unit, if that makes sense!

They didn't cover themselves in glory on the Tugela Heights though when they supported the Connaughts in an attack. But, for citizen soldiers they did very well over all.

I got Kevin A to source his attestation papers at Kew and, would you believe it, Massey has a service record with the Royal Navy - an interesting character indeed.

Rory wrote: I got Kevin A to source his attestation papers at Kew and, would you believe it, Massey has a service record with the Royal Navy - an interesting character indeed.

That's a bonus!

Was Massey discharged from the RN before enlisting or did he desert?

Born 1866 - Stone in Staffordshire
Enlisted with RN - 1884 for 10 years
Discharged at Simonstown, CP - Time Expired 1894

No desertion

Regards

Rory