TOPIC:

Why would someone have their 2nd Boer War clasps forfeited?
My grandmothers brother was in the Royal Irish Fusiliers.
Thanks.

Falling foul of authority in some way might be a very general answer to your query.

An examination of the relevant medal roll for the individual might provide a clue to the precise cause.

Pete

Thanks for that Pete.
I had another look at his medal roll. There are two pages. The first page is for medals issued 1st April 1901.
First column gives his regimental number - 3592. Next his rank - Private. Next his Name - Felix Crawley. The next entry is then - FORFEITED. Then, yes for three clasps, Orange Free State, Transvaal and Talana.

The second page for medals issued on 1st October 1902 and dated 15th Jan 1903.
First three columns give number, rank and name as above.
The next two columns are signed yes for South Africa 1901 and South Africa 1902.
In the last column, Remarks, one single word - Invalided.

His military history sheet records him in South Africa 30/09/99 - 05/06/02 a total of 248 Days.

Is it possible to tell from this what his medal entitlement was.
Any help would be very much appreciated.

Medal rolls are under his number as 5392 and read as a no clasp QSA and a 2 date clasp KSA
I regard the annotation "invalided" as a euphemism.

His service papers are under his number as 5892, On page 3 are detailed 3 brushes with authority, and cumulatively that may have resulted in his premature discharge.





Cheers
Pete

The !st Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers (1/RIF) QSA Medal Roll bearing the name of Felix Crawley:



Three thoughts: (1) would not the "Forfeited" mean he forfeited the medal & clasps and not just the clasps; (2) Looking at the left hand column we find "Rel'd 11/1/05" - I suspect two years after Felix was discharged the matter was reconsidered and a more lenient view taken of his behaviour and his medal(s) was released (i.e. issued) on 11th January 1905; (3) As the 1/RIF did not return to England until just after the was ended drawing up the Medal Roll in in July 1901 seems extremely premature.

After the Battle of Talana Hill (20th October 1899), when some of the 1/RIF casualties were due to friendly fire, the 1/RIF were responsible for the biggest capitulation ever up until that time of British Forces at Nicholson's Nek on 30th October 1899 when over 450 of them surrendered to the Boers - Felix Crawley was amongst them and not released until 5th September 1900 meaning of his 2 years 248 days in South Africa for nearly 300 days he was a PoW - see the below from the Ballymena Weekly Telegraph of 29th September 1900. The Cork Weekly News of 14th July 1900 lists all the 450+ prisoners by Company which shows Felix was in A Company. If you go to the write-up on the 1/RIF on this site (via the Unit Information in the menu to the left of the screen) you will see A Company were not one of the Companies that initiated the catastrophe and I suspect Felix and his Company were prepared to fight on when somebody prematurely raised the white flag.



I would agree that Felix does seem to have been discharged prematurely in shame as he was over a year shy of the seven years of active service he signed up for and the fact that he was not discharged to the Army Reserve suggests the army wanted to be shot of him.

The last page of his service records shows he had an elder brother Thomas and looking at the above listing one can make out 2805 Drummer J M'Aleer. Thus I am afraid I conclude this article in the Irish News of 9 October 1907 refers to him:

Thanks for that Smethwick. That gives me a lot to think about. I’m not sure the McAteer in the newspaper article is the same drummer McAleer. I will give him the “benefit of the doubt”. The other two are probably my Thomas and Felix OK. I know very little about Thomas.
You probably already know this, Felix Crawley joined the Royal Engineers 1915. His service number was 125077. He was discharged 20/04/16 his service no longer required ( on medical grounds). He was in France 29/04/15 to 11/01/16.
Thanks again for your very informative post.