Unclaimed Medals.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVII, Issue 26, 26 June 1912, Page 56

Unclaimed Medals.

In turn large strong rooms at Woolwich Dockyard are stored nearly 50,000 unclaimed South African medals. Each is engraved with the name of the man to whom it was awarded. These men are not now with the colours, but a staff of elerks and a department armed with medal lists and regimental records are endeavouring to trace them.. Many of this lost legion are Irregulars who flocked to the British colours when tne war broke out, but who have since become -scattered all over the world. One young man, for instance, after the war, went prospecting in the interior. He turned up recently at Capetown after an absence of nearly ten years, and asked for his medal. It was given him. Similar demands from all parts of the British Empire are received’ nearly every week. Hundreds of medals have been reposing in regimental safes since 1904. At the end of ten years, according to the King’s regulations, those still unclaimed will be broken up and the silver debited to the Mint. Many men have refused the medal on the ground that it is “too cheap.” Three-quarters of a million of the medals were struck—a fact which may have something to do with -their being lightly regarded. But these. South African awards arc not the only medals at Woolwich awaiting claimants. There are 4000 medals (with names engraved) for the Zulu campaign of 1878-9, and also seven medals presented by the British South Africa Company for the Matabele campaign. Claims for Crimean and Indian Mutiny medals are still made. On an average the India Office gives a way twelve Mutinv medals a year, while the War Office bestows one Crimean medal a year and replaces about ten lost medals.