County: Monmouthshire
Issued on: Return
Date of presentation: 12/06/1901
Number issued: 12
Gold Maltese crosses, to:
7539 Private Robert REEVES
5613 Trooper Jessie Luff TALBOT
9863 Trooper Edmund Bessell WHALLEY
4195 Trooper Albert Veysey LANG (absent)
SOUTH AFRICAN VOLUNTEERS’ DINNER AT CHEPSTOW.
A very successful dinner was given at the Beaufort Arms Hotel on Tuesday evening in honour of local Volunteers and Imperial Yeomanry returned from the front. …….
THE PRESENTATIONS.
There was a strong muster, some 340 in number, of the A, B, C, D, and E Companies of the 2nd V.B. South Wales Borderers for the battalion drill at the Look-out field on Wednesday evening, when Lieut.-Col. F. Evans was in command, and the following officers were present: Major C.H. Smith, Capts. Hamilton Jones, Summers, and Berthon, and Lieuts. Richards, Lawrence, and Perry, when advantage was taken of the occasion to make public presentations to the local volunteers from South Africa.
On its way from the railway station the regiment was halted in Beaufort Square, and formed a three-sided square around a temporary platform there, on which were Miss Clay, Mrs H.H. Clay, Mrs A.G. Lawrence, the Misses Lawrence, Mrs C.H. Clarke, Miss Clarke, Miss Whalley, Mrs W.C. Thomas, Mr H.H. Clay, Revs. E.J. Hensley and C.R. Thomas, the members of the Chepstow Urban District Council, and others.
The battalion band having played an eminently suitable piece, “Sons of the Brave”, the bugle band sounded a fan-fare, after which Mr C.H. Clarke (Chairman of the Chepstow Urban District Council) stepped to the front of the platform, and addressing the large concourse present, said they had assembled there that night to honour their volunteers: those men who at their country’s call stood out from the ranks and gallantly went forth to fight its battles. Ten days or so ago they gave them a hearty reception on their return, and now it was his pleasure on behalf of the subscribers to ask their acceptance of a small memento, which he hoped they would cherish as a memento of the many hardships they had undergone in South Africa. He would ask their acceptance of a silver watch and a gold pendant for their watch-chains, not for the intrinsic value, but because they, the in habitants of Chepstow, wished to express their thanks to them by giving them some small memento of the campaign. He then asked Mrs Clarke to make the presentations.
Mrs C.H. Clarke, with a few appropriate words to each, then presented a silver lever watch and a gold watch-chain pendant, Maltese cross form (both bearing the inscription, “Presented by Chepstow Town to ________ , 2nd Vol. Bn., The South Wales Borderers, S. Africa, 1900-1”, those to the Yeomanry being inscribed accordingly) to the following members of the Active Service Company of the Borderers: Sergt. QUINTON, Corpl. LEWIS, and Pvts. BAKER, REEVES, and FLOWER, and to Lance-Corpl. MORGAN, and Troopers TALBOT and WHALLEY of the Imperial Yeomanry, and also to the representatives of Pvts. H. JONES and ELLIS, and Trooper LANG, who were not present.
The battalion band then struck up the National Anthem, which the assembly joined in in singing.
Vociferous cheers were then given for the volunteers from the Front, followed by cheers for Mrs Clarke, after which the regiment proceeded to the drill field.
