TOPIC:

I have recently bought this medal and is winging its way to me at the moment-I would be interested to know if there are any monuments to the Rifle Brigade in Sth Africa or the UK that may have his name on it..

I have a copy of the medal roll and a copy of the Record of Deceased Soldiers Effects.It appears he must have been a career soldier as the record gives his date of enlistment as 25-5-1893.

The credit and charges ledger of the form shows him having STG 1 pound 9 shillings and charges of 12 and 6 pence so his mother and his brother and two sisters received 4 shillings and tupence each.

I wonder what they thought when the medal turned up.

South Africa-Standerton: British Memorial

Hello

Nice medal. I had a good look at it because of the location 'Grootvlei' - Trueman's comrades had a sharp battle there on Boxing Day - not a peaceful Christmas! There is some confusion on the location of his death in the records. He was killed at Rietvlei (6) not Grootvlei.

From "A Gazetteer of the Second Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902" (Military Press, Milton Keynes 1999), HM & MGM Jones:

[2628: 2648-2831] a farm in the South African Republic (Balfour district; Mpumalanga), 20 km south of Balfour. Variants: Rietvly (also used on the 1: 250,000 map); Rietvley (used on contemporary maps). A sweep through the farm by Lt-Col A.E.W. Colville's column was opposed on 24 December 1900 and one British soldier was killed and two others wounded. HMG IV p.28 (map no.56).

There are service papers in the WW1 series (WO363) for Trueman online.

Regards
Meurig

Thanks to the two forum members who helped with this-we now all know who the 1 soldier was who was killed on the 24th of December 1900- makes for quite and interesting medal as on face value it looks a very common QSA with two state bars-nothing to get excited about. The medal roll only has KIA in the remarks column no other info like date of death. Can anybody access the records that SWB refers to?

The medal arrived today and is in almost mint condition-it took about 2 weeks from being posted and has been checked and rechecked within an inch of its life from the US to Australia-one happy camper.