TOPIC:

I guess I have always wanted one of these and at the Adelaide gun Show today I was able to secure a QSA/KSA pair to 2414 J. WILSON 2ND Coldstream Guards-admittedly it is on lay-by so it will be a couple of months before I get it.
I have checked him out on the roll and sure enough he is entitled to Modder River, Belmont, Paardeburg, Driefontein, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill and Belfast-great result.

But being a retired person with time on my hands I have just been through the roll and found that only 42 rankers received this combination-the only officer who looked promising was discounted on a supplementary roll some pages to the rear of the normal roll.

Of the 42 recipients 6 went on and turned their 7 bar medals into eight bar medals 5 with 01 and 1 with 02. So only 36 combinations like I got today so I am pretty happy.

From my reading of the roll the bar that discounted many six bars from being seven was Paardeberg-it appears it was much scarcer than any other to the Coldstream Guards.

Congratulations on your find........

The following may be of interest from my collection......

SHIELD, T. (THOMAS)

REG. NO.: 9574
RANK: PRIVATE
REGT: COLDSTREAM GUARDS
BARS: BELMONT, MODDER RIVER, PAARDEBERG, DRIEFONTEIN, JOHANNESBURG, DIAMOND HILL, BELFAST

DATE OF PURCHASE: SEPT. 10, 1960 (FIRST MEDAL I EVER PURCHASED)
PRICE AT TIME OF PURCHASE: $35.00

REMARKS / HISTORY:
1. KINGS SOUTH AFRICA MEDAL - USUAL TWO BARS

Mike

A quality purchase Mike-much better than the 7 bar I purchased to the 12th Lancers about 1980 which turned out to have 3 non entitled bars in the middle. I did note Shields among my notes when I was hard at it on the rolls-there were 3 rolls:
QSA battle bars,
another QSA roll which only covered the 01 and 02 bars,
and the KSA roll all about 180 pages each or more

Another sighting-John Burridge in Western Australia has the QSA TO 784 Pte M. Lally who had the seven battle bars in question and was able to add South Africa 1901 as he was discharged at the end of 1901. He re-enlisted in WW1 and served on Gallipoli. This begs the question what is more sort after a seven battle bar medal and KSA like QSAMIKE and I have or a 8 bar medal where the recipient didn't serve enough time to qualify for a KSA.
Our men are really 9 bar qualifiers if you count the spread of bars across two medals- this should start some lively discussion.

Congratulation on your new acquisition George.

I have this group to 2294 Pte. O. Shepherd Coldstream Guards.

QSA Belmont, Modder River, Paardeberg, Driefontein, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill & Belfast
KSA two clasps
1914 Trio (Same number all the way through).

Regards

David

Thanks David-yours is an exceptional group and complete. My man has no WW1 service as some paperwork which came with it noted he died in 1910-good for me as I know I have his complete medal entitlement-not so good for my man as he would have only been in his early 30's when he died.