South Africa War 1899- 1902

[bigjarofwasps]

Hi Guys,

I was reading an article recently about clasp issues for the various battles & phases of the South Africa War. I was surprised about the similarities between this campaign and the current one in Iraq, but thats a topic for another thread. My question for this one is, does anyone know the criteria to be awarded the QSA Medal with no clasps?

Gordon.

[Michael Johnson]

Well, for starters, the Royal Navy were issued quite a few, so service off South Africa, for one. Service in Natal or Rhodesia after May 17, 1900 did not qualify for either of those clasps.

Edited July 24, 2007 by Michael Johnson

[bigjarofwasps]

Cheers Mike, that would explain why so many marines, were issued it without any clasps, they must have been aboard ships.

[geoff]

Hi Guys,

I was reading an article recently about clasp issues for the various battles & phases of the South Africa War. I was surprised about the similarities between this campaign and the current one in Iraq, but thats a topic for another thread. My question for this one is, does anyone know the criteria to be awarded the QSA Medal with no clasps?

Gordon.

Hi Gordon, I have been mulling over your question for a few weeks now and seeing Michael's reply thought I would add a little more information, I am definitely no expert on the Anglo-Boer War but here goes.

Criteria? difficult one, I would say/suggest that if a recipient did not meet any of the requirements for any the 26 bars/clasps issued, (extreme bad luck I would have thought!) then they would have received the medal without clasp.

Medals without clasp went to the Royal Navy, as Michael states, also troops who guarded Boer prisoners on the island of St Helena, nurses, members of the St. John Ambulance Brigade and civilians whose work furthered the war efforts, though they took no part in the fighting.

Through the little research I have carried out for the few Q.S.A. medals I possess, I have seen a number of Q.S.A. medals without bars to a number of regiments, one such medal belonging to a local guy of the Imperial Yeomanry who spent some eight months in South Africa, returned home seeing no action shortly after June 1902, research suggests a shortage of horses!

One final suggestion from me, a lot of troops contracted/suffered from various diseases on their voyage to the Cape and were hospitilised upon arrival, quite a few of these guys were repatriated without seeing any action, I am presumming they did enough to be awarded the Q.S.A. without bar, (food for thought).

I look forward to other feedback/suggestions, on this very interesting topic.

Best regards

Geoff

[Ed_Haynes]

Good post, Geoff. There are so many intricacies to the clasp qualifications for this conflict (which was expected to be so quick and so easy, and so WASN'T either of these). The claspless ones, the "SA 01" and "SA 02" on the QSA, etc. It is so complex and contraidtory that it almost makes me wish there was more sphere for my collecting interests there.

However, this sort of thing isn't easy to discuss in the abstract. Any claspless QSAs for presentation, consideration, and discussion? I have some Indian Army awards (of course), but the Indian Army role there was so odd that I'm not sure we can take any more exceptions around this larger question.

I am let to wonder, though, as to how many "claspless" QSAs are simply manifestations of the fact that the clasps were sent out to the recipients two or three years after the medals had been awarded. In many cases, the clasps were ignored, in others they were just slipped onto the ribbon and have gone missing in the intervening decades. How many "claspless" medals have just lost their clasps?

Edited July 29, 2007 by Ed_Haynes

[Ed_Haynes]

To respond to my own request, just two claspless examples:

1- "3960 COOK LALL BEHARIE. ARMY HOSP: C." -- he qualified for Orange Free State, Transvaal, and Defence of Ladysmith, but the roll (oddly) is annotated "No clasps authorised for issue with the silver medal".

2- "2181 SOWAR MAL SINGH. 1st C. INDIA H." -- who actually qualfied for Orange Free State and Transvaal, but may never have gotten them.

Edited July 29, 2007 by Ed_Haynes

[Chris Boonzaier]

Most of the Town guards recieved the medals without clasps.

A Transvaal, OFS, or at least CC bar seems to be logical minimum, but maybe they had to have a certain amount of operational activity to qualify?

Best

Chris