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Picture courtesy of Baldwin

QSA (1) Natal (Nursing Sister L. Dale)

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The Queen’s South Africa Medal awarded to Nursing Sister Louisa Dale , Army Nursing Service Reserve which has the Clasp Natal. Medal Roll WO/100/229 shows 11 Nurses with the QSA awarded Clasps. Some say this is just a check list, perhaps, but 9 show Natal clasp and one shows Defence of Kimberley and One Defence of Mafeking. It is known that Medals for the War were issued without clasps, but mistakes do happen. The clasp is original and is as originally fixed to the Medal and the Medal is impressed naming. An Anomaly, a mistake, but perhaps one of the 11 Queen’s South Africa Medals to nurses issued with a Clasp by mistake comprising Queen’s South Africa Medal, 2nd type, no ghost dates, one clasp, Natal, (Nursing Sister L. Dale), impressed naming, medal cleaned, rim toned, very fine (1)

Nursing Sister Louisa Dale served in the South African War with the Army Nursing Service Reserve, first at 18 General Hospital in what was the small but growing town of Charleston which is situated at the top of Laing’s Nek pass in what is known as KwaZulu-Natal for which she may have qualified for the Natal Clasp, by mistake, the clasp is ticked on Wo100/229 but also a Roll shows No Clasp. She was to continue to serve on the Hospital Ship Nubia, in 1901 she served at the 14th General Hospital.

The ticks on the roll (WO100/229p159) are similar to the administration marks we see on other rolls (eg in the Belmont column).



The medal was issued off WO100/229p164 and would originally have been a no clasp medal.

Picture courtesy of Spink

QSA (0) (Nursing Sister E. Ellis.)

Elizabeth Ellis was born at Horbury, Yorkshire in 1858 and trained at Guy's Hospital, she married a George Ellis and by 1881 was living at Spring End, Horbury. They had moved to 3 Snake Hill, North Bierley, West Yorkshire in 1891 however she joined Princess Christian's Army Nursing Service (Reserve) at London on 2 March 1900.

Assigned to the 15th General Hospital at Howick, Natal, a 536 bed Hospital which opened in July 1900. A concentration camp operated nearby, although this was rather better run than the majority of those in Transvaal. It became overcrowded later in the war but even then the cases of typhoid, measles and bronchitis never reached epidemic levels. After the war, Ellis' husband died and she appeared on the 1911 census living at 4 Snake Hill Oakenshaw, North Bierly, West Yorkshire.