Martin are you aware that George's 1892 attestation papers and his 1892 to 1900 service record can be found on Find My Past? Three extracts follow.
The first gives his details when he attested:
The second summarises his service and shows his time in South Africa was very short. The 91 days includes the journeys out and back, typically each would have been about 3 weeks, meaning he was inSsouth Africa for only about 7 weeks:
It does also throw into doubt whether he was still with his unit on the day his brother was killed in action. Unfortunately his service record does not tell us why he returned home early and nor does the medal roll. His service record does tell us what happened when he arrived back in England. He was transferred to the 4th Battalion and promoted to Corporal on April 1900 and to Sergeant on 1 May 1900. Six months later he was discharged medically unfit.