WAIT FOR MEDALS

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 January 1929, Page 11

WAIT FOR MEDALS

CASES OF HALF A CENTURY That there is no need for despair on the part of veterans of past campaigns who have not yet received their medals is proved by the case of Stephen Macdonald, a native of Wrexham, and an inmate of the North Wales Mental Hospital,' who has recently been presented with the Egyptian Medal of 1882. Mr. A. A. Evans chairman of the visiting committee, in making the presentation, said that it was only recently discovered that Macdonald was entitled to the medal. And it is only a few weeks since M. Arthur Franck, a 78-year-old veteran of the Franco-Prussian War, living at Marylebone,' London, received the diploma entitling him to wear the medal awarded to Frenchmen who served in the war of 1870-71. He had had to wait nearly 58 years, and the delay was apparently owing to the fact that, after the war, he went to Switzerland to reside, and later, to England. When ex-Sergeant-Major E. Wilson, of Horsforth, was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in recognition of his services in the Egyptian Campaign of 1882, there had been a delay of 43 years. The presentation was made at Leeds, and with the official intimation of the award there was a letter granting Wilson an annuity of £lO. At the time Sergeant-Major Wilson was. 74 years of age, and had four sons, all of whom had served in the war.

Though the South African War ended on May 31, 1902, claims for medals were sent in so steadily for some years following that at last, to put an end to the rush, the War Office fixed a date in 1907 as the last date for the submission of claims. On the other hand, that war was responsible for the first real delay in the Victoria Crosses, which are generally awarded hot on the heels of the deed that earned them. The delay arose from the fact that King Edward decided to make issues of V.C.s to the representatives of deceased officers, N.C.O.’s and men “who fell during the recent operations in South Africa in the performance of acts of valour which would, in the opinion of the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in the Field, have entitled them to be recommended for the distinction had they survived.” Such were the words of the new warrant, but it was not dated until August 8, 1902, and was not received in South Africa until September. One of the names on the list was Sergeant A. Atkinson, Yorkshire Regiment, who had been recommended for the Cross in consequence of bravery at Paardeberg on February 18, 1900, more than 21 years previously, although he later died of wounds.

Another was Lieutenant DigbyJones of the Royal Engineers, who had earned his V.C. on Waggon Hill on January 6, 1900, although he, too, died of his wounds. A sergeant of rifles was in 1909, awarded a medal for an act .on the occasion of fighting in Canada 57 years previously. A queer anomaly applied to some members of Colonial Corps who fought in the Rhodesian Rebellion of 1896. Although all the fighting took place in 1896, the medal was issued without clasp, unless the N.C.O. or man was in the country in 1897. The officer was shot in the head in Rhodesia and partly paralysed. He afterwards served on two sticks for 17 months in the Boer War. For fighting in connection with the Rhodesia Rebellion he was wounded, he got a medal only. For the Boer War, where he never fired a shot, he got the Queen’s Medal with three clasps.

Another comic-opera situation created by the Boer War, by the way, was that the conditions for the King’s Medal were so worded that numbers of men who did not get into uniform until Queen Victoria was dead, and served right to the end of the war, received the Queen’s Medal, but not the King’s Medal! Cases of this kind come to light even to-day, and it is not long since an order was issued dealing with the right to medals and clasps of certain naval men who served at Simonstown in the early stages of the Boer War. The Rhodesian anomaly was put right 30 years after the campaign in that country, so far as certain men were concerned, or in December 1926, to be 'precise. And at the same time the War Office approved of a medal and clasp inscribed “Mashonaland, 1890,” being awarded to the Colonial Forces who were engaged in the expedition which marched into and captured Mashonaland in September, 1890 —a delay of over 35 years. The medal, which is designated the “Mashonaland, 1890,” medal, is in silver and similar to that sanctioned by Queen Victoria to be granted by the British South Africa Company for military operations in Matabeleland 1893, with identical riband, but with the superscription, “Matabeleland, 1893,” omitted from the reverse. If the grant of battle honours on the Colours be the test, however, the above may be described as hustling. For it was not until 1909 that the gallant defence of Tangier, beginning in 1662, the taking and holding of Gibralter in 1704, and the great exploits of the British cavalry at Warburg during the Seven Years’ War, and other actions of 18th century fame, found a place among the distinctions inscribed in the official Army List.