TOPIC:

On 31 March 1900 John David Waley, a stockbroker and 2nd Lt in 6th Royal Fusiliers, was seconded to the Remount Department. He was still seconded when promoted to Lt in July 1900. Yet he received the Queen's Medal with 3 clasps (Cape Colony, Orange Free State and Transvaal) and the King's Medal with 2 clasps. Can anyone please give me more information on his service in South Africa?

Thanks
Mike

Mike, you have hit upon an interesting man (who some might term as a cad) with an interesting family. Public Family trees on Ancestry, Newspapers of the day and Dr Google provide a mass of information but do not fully answer your question.

Via Ancestry I can find him on a Remount Department Medal Roll showing he was issued with a QSA with the three clasps you mention. However, I can't find him on a QSA medal roll covering the date clasps or a KSA medal roll. What I can say is that if he did qualify for a KSA he did it by broken service in SA. The 31st March 1901 Census found him living at 26 First Avenue, Hove (as in Brighton), Sussex, England. Here is the relevant part of the the 1901 Census.



Mabel (nee Beddington later to become Mocatta) was his first wife, six year old Aubrey was to be killed in action in 1917 and I will let you count the servants.

The National Army Museum hold a telegram relating to him which might help answer your question - unfortunately it is not viewable on line.



Why a cad?



Like his eldest son, he served in the Great War first arriving at the Western Front in October 1914 and thus receiving all three campaign medals. He ended the war a Major and remarried. About the time his son was killed he had married a Molly Yearsley, ten years his junior.

This link tells all you need to know about Aubrey who had only returned to the trenches 48 hours before he was killed in action on 31 July 1917. He was first wounded in the Battle of Loos in September 1915, invalided home, complications meant he was not back to fighting fitness until July 1917.

www.jewsfww.uk/aubrey-john-simon-waley.php



His father (your man) died in 1945 in Kensington aged 74 - his death was announced in several papers but it appears to have been a very private funeral and no obituary, that I can find, subsequently appeared - which is a shame because it might have answered your question.

Regards, David.

Mike, forgot to include this - a letter written in his fair hand as part of the ritualistic and of its time divorce he and Mabel went through. It also explains why he is not apparent on the 1911 Census - taking the moral high tone, he was living in sin in Paris.

Thanks, David. I had found some of what you sent but not all. He lived with his second wife in Italy for much of the interwar period, only returning to live in Britain after she died.
It's always good to find out what they were called, so the signature Johnny makes him a bit more human.
He did not spend very long in France in 1914. He arrived on 10 October and was shot in the chest on 25 October, with 4th Royal Fusiliers (which is why he interests me).
After remarrying, his first wife became a well-known socialite.
I admit to finding the medal rolls for the Boer war very confusing.

Forgot that my newspaper searches don't include the London Times so just looked for him on the shipping records to be found on this site. They tell me that a Lieutenant J D Waley of the 6th Royal Fusiliers left Southampton on 7 April 1900 aboard the Persia but they do not tell me when he arrived in SA. He then left Cape Town aboard the Briton on 28 November 1900 and arrived back at Southampton on 14 December 1900. He receives no further mentions which is not definite proof that he did not return but indicates it is a definite possibility and even a probability as it could have involved up to 4 more mentions (2 going out & 2 coming back).

Thus do you have definite proof he was issued with a KSA?

I see what you mean about Mabel Moccata - she made a full length appearance with string of pearls on the front cover of the Bystander as a member of the organising committee of the the 1922 Wedding Ball at the Albert Hall. She also seemed to be the go to person for tickets for the exclusive annual Greyhound Ball at which a "lucky" guest won a greyhound.

An Ernest William Mocatta was killed in action at Ladysmith during the siege but no idea whether he was related to Mabel's second husband. This courtesy of Find a Grave, found in a church in Chester.



Btw the divorce papers can be downloaded from Ancestry if such things interest you.

Thanks David, very helpful. No, I don't have proof of 2 King's clasps (perhaps I assumed that after seeing the 3 Q's clasps? It was a while ago that I did that work.)
The Waleys, the Beddingtons and the Mocattas were all part of the Anglo-Jewish aristocracy of that era.
Thanks again.