Thanks Neville, Now why were only 12 favoured with wristlet watches and why those four who between them make two varieties of cheese and two types of chalk.

I have already posted on the colourful and varied life of 4110 Colour Sergeant Herbert Wynne Jones:

www.angloboerwar.com/forum/search?query=...2/2024&childforums=1

4094 Sergeant William Devonald Edwards & 4111 Corporal William Ford were at the opposite ends of the age spectrum and the first had to knock several years off to be accepted. William senior was a bit of a chancer - I gave up doing a write-up on him because his life was so complicated and I developed a headache, his mother was a Devonald who seem to have been a noted Pembrokeshire family. William junior was the son of the miller at Carew Tidal Mill.

4123 Trooper Thomas Warlow - in your write-up on the Ogmore Valley & Nantymoel Tribute Medal you described him as a "potential recipient" and as an "Ogmoreite". His father was Pembrokeshire born and served as a policeman in the county, there is a newspaper report of a local being on charge of attempting to murder him, and Thomas was born in Pembroke. By the time he attested aged 26 Thomas had also become a policeman. When he was discharged a newspaper reported he was returning to duty as a policeman at Nantymoel. By 1921 he was married and living with family in Haverfordwest and still a policeman. He was buried at St Mary's in Tenby in February 1960 and here he is, according to the creator of a PFT on Ancestry:



I know nothing about the four Welsh Rgt men except for L Cpl White whose father was a Haverfordwest watchmaker and died a couple of days before his son set off for SA. This interesting April 1900 newspaper clipping also seems to refer to him:


I wonder if Private John was related to the Trooper John who served in the PIY although, as any Welsh rugby fan will tell you, it is not an uncommon surname in Wales.

You cannot go in a Pembrokeshire Graveyard without tripping over a grave bearing the surname Matthias. I know two who are still alive and tenants of farms where I go searching for eggs of the rare Brown Hairstreak butterfly.

Bit more investigation required.

From my record of other Haverfordwest presentations, four of the twelve PIY recipients were probably:

30th (Pembrokeshire) Company, 9th Bn. Imperial Yeomanry –
4094 Sergeant William Devonald Edwards
4110 Trooper [Colour-Sergeant] Herbert Wynne Jones
4111 Trooper [Corporal] William FORD
4123 Trooper Thomas Warlow

“In the presence of Colonel Sir Charles Phillips, Bart., and other officers of the company and friends, Lady Phillips, of Picton Castle, recently presented twelve troopers of the Pembrokeshire Yeomanry with wristlet watches, field-glasses, &c.” (Western Mail, 12 Mar 1900).



The volunteers were:

Volunteer Active Service Company, Welsh Regiment –
7347 Lance-Corporal [Sergeant] Thomas [Tom] Canavan WHITE
7333 Private John [Jack] William JOHN
7341 Private John [Jack] REES
7336 Private Morgan MATTHIAS

Presentation made by Lady Philipps (of Picton Castle), in the Masonic Hall, Haverfordwest.

Having checked my database, these were full-sized pocket watches and not transitional wristwatches. This makes more sense, as the smaller watches were intended for campaigning in South Africa and not for civilian life back home.


By the way, I met up with one of the UK's most respected watch dealers a few years back, who has a particular interest in the development of the wristwatch. In terms of the ABW, he has seen small "fob" watches that have been converted for wrist use, either with leather bracelets or with the addition of lugs to take straps. However, despite 40 years of dealing he is yet to find an attributable ABW-period factory-made watch, designed from the outset as a wristwatch. He does, however, believe they are out there.....

I think this subject deserves its own thread.


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