TOPIC:

Hi

I have discovered among my late mother's things a Queen's Medal with clasps for Laing's Nek, Transvaal, relief of Ladysmith and Tugela Heights. The medal's number if 448 and the name on it is PTE I Shepherd, Imp Lt Inft. The mystery is that the nominal roll for the Imperial Light Infantry does not include an I. Shepherd (there is an A.C. Shepherd just to confuse things). Also medal no 448 seems to have been allocated to somebody else?

My grandfather would have been 21 in 1899. He lived in Wales and in fact is shown as having been living at home in the 1901 census ("living on independent means"). He returned to South Africa shortly thereafter. He passed away when I was three years old so I never knew him, but to the best of my knowledge he never spoke about his involvement in the Boer War.

I am puzzled by the fact that there is no record of him, but the medal is certainly real. Can anybody throw any light on this?

Paul von Zwiklitz
Cape Town
vonzees@iafrica.com

Good Afternoon Paul.....

It looks to me like the Regimental Number and the Regiment (Or what can be seen of it)were correctly impressed but the persons name has been removed and the Shepherd name has been added....

Mike

That particular medal appears to have been issued to Joseph Halprin on the 24th of May 1902.

You could look at WO126/55-65 but I would be amazed if he had ever served in the ILI, I am very confident that he did not!

paulvz wrote: Hi

I have discovered among my late mother's things a Queen's Medal with clasps for Laing's Nek, Transvaal, relief of Ladysmith and Tugela Heights. The medal's number if 448 and the name on it is PTE I Shepherd, Imp Lt Inft. The mystery is that the nominal roll for the Imperial Light Infantry does not include an I. Shepherd (there is an A.C. Shepherd just to confuse things). Also medal no 448 seems to have been allocated to somebody else?

My grandfather would have been 21 in 1899. He lived in Wales and in fact is shown as having been living at home in the 1901 census ("living on independent means"). He returned to South Africa shortly thereafter. He passed away when I was three years old so I never knew him, but to the best of my knowledge he never spoke about his involvement in the Boer War.

I am puzzled by the fact that there is no record of him, but the medal is certainly real. Can anybody throw any light on this?

Paul von Zwiklitz
Cape Town
vonzees@iafrica.com

Thanks for that information, which makes sense, but of course does not explain how (and why) the medal came to be modified