TOPIC:

One of the 93 is the group to Shoeing-Smith J. Milne (3962) of the 12th Lancers. He was also awarded a LSGC in 1914, which is missing. Please contact me if you know of its location.

Here's a photo taken by Richard O. Wilson, Carlton Studio, Consett, Co. Durham. It's post Boer War, but the captain who is the bridegroom is wearing a bronze RHS medal on his right breast and his QSA & KSA pair on his right breast. He's in the RA, but unfortunately there is no name.

As of 1 May 2025, this group is currently available from an online dealer...

THE BOER WAR AND WW1 CAMPAIGN GROUP TO MAJOR E.C. HOLLAND, 6TH INNISKILLING DRAGOONS
Where images are needed, contact Military Medals Online. Description: THE BOER WAR AND WW1 CAMPAIGN GROUP TO MAJOR E.C. HOLLAND, 6TH INNISKILLING DRAGOONS AND REMOUNT SERVICE, WHO WAS AWARDED THE ROYAL HUMANE SOCIETY'S MEDAL FOR SAVING TWO SOLDIERS FROM DROWNING DURING THE BOER WAR, AND ADDITIONALLY DECORATED BY THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT DURING WW1. Eight: Queen's South Africa Medal, 5 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Johannesburg, Belfast, officially engraved (Captain, 6th Dragoons) Kings South Africa Medal, 2 clasps officially engraved (Captain, 6th Inniskilling Dragoons) 1914-15 Star (Major, Remount Service) British War Medal and Victory Medal with MID oakleaf on ribbon (Major) Victoria, Jubilee Medal 1897, silver (unnamed, as issued) France, Medaille d'Honneur des Affaires Etrangeres, silver gilt, with ornate crossed swords and oak leaves suspension unnamed, as issued, rim struck twice with the Paris mint mark for medals of the period, a Horn of Plenty, and additionally impressed "Argent" (silver) between the two mint marks Royal Humane Society Lifesaving Medal, bronze, small size (38mm), successful (officially engraved: CAPT: E.C. HOLLAND. FEB: 21. 1901.) Campaign medals, Jubilee Medal and French decoration mounted loose style, as worn, Royal Humane Society Medal mounted separately, two small nicks to obverse rim of Medaille dHonneur (test marks?) at 7 oclock and 8 oclock, otherwise generally Almost Extremely Fine, and undoubtedly a unique combination of medals, certainly to the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons and probably to any branch of the British armed forces. Group accompanied by photocopied Medal Index Card, photocopied extract from regimental history, etc. Born 21/4/1871, Ernest Charles Holland was first commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, 4/3/1891, and promoted Lieutenant, 17/8/1892 and Captain, 25/2/1899. Holland retired from the army in 1902, but rejoined following the outbreak of WW1, being appointed Captain and Assistant Superintendent, Remount Depot, 30/11/1914, and promoted Major, 25/4/1915. Major Holland first saw active service during the Boer War, when he initially commanded the regimental baggage train. Later, when regimental baggage trains were abolished, in order to improve column mobility, Holland was placed in command of the combined baggage train for the column in which he was serving at the time (among the columns that Holland and the Inniskilling Dragoons served in during the Boer War was one commanded by a former Inniskilling Dragoons officer, Colonel Rimington, of Rimington's Guides fame). During WW1 Holland served with the 43rd Remount Squadron, initially in the Egyptian theatre of operations from 21/11/1915, and subsequently in Salonika. Holland won his Royal Humane Society Medal for an act of gallantry, saving the lives of two men from the 14th Hussars from drowning, 21/2/1901, during the Boer War. The following description of the incident is taken from "With the Inniskilling Dragoons During the Boer War" by Lieutenant Colonel J. Watkins Yardley: "At 6am it was off again towards the Intombi River, on a day of continuous rain and over terrible roads and drifts, in some of which the water was over the horses' backs. After getting over the Chaka Spruit, Tambootiesbult (17 miles) was reached after dark. The Chaka rose too high at last, and several wagons had to be left on the other side till the next day. The ambulance wagon, with two men in it, passed the night in the midst of the torrent - the drowned mules in their harness were bobbing about. At daylight Captain E.C. Holland, Inniskillling Dragoons, found the flood still rising and the two men on the top of the hood of the wagon in imminent peril of being washed away, hood and all. He pluckily swam out with a rope and managed to get them off, a deed for which he obtained the bronze medal of the Royal Humane Society." Major Holland was mentioned in dispatches during WW1, London Gazette 21/7/1917, page 7449. 1897 Diamond Jubilee Medal rare to the Inniskilling Dragoons, the Regimental History recording only the regimental band and a detachment of officers and ment being sent to London to take part in the procession. The French Medaille dHonneur not traced in London Gazette, but group is mounted as worn. Medal Index Card gives address as 38 Rutland Gate (London) SW7. From May 1791 the Paris mint had the sole right to strike medals and tokens in France, though later some makers were sub-contracted under license to strike medals in their workshops. Silver medals struck by the Paris mint were of .950 standard and were impressed with the word "Argent" (silver) in full along the edge, and additionally struck with the Paris mint mark for the period.The mint mark in use by the Paris mint for 1/1/1880 onwards was a Horn of Plenty.

Above, Neville C reported:

1st Bn. South Staffordshire Regiment –
5189 Lance-Corporal H. HUSTON [J. Huston] (Bronze; Caledon River, O.R.C., 18/03/1901)
5590 Private J. JOYCE (Bronze; Caledon River, O.R.C., 18/03/1901) Killed in action, 25 Sep 1901.

"On the 18th March, 1901, Private A.C. French, 1st Bn South Staffordshire Regiment, got into the Caledon River, Orange River Colony. The river was in strong flood and very dangerous. At great risk, Huston and Joyce plunged in but were unable to effect the rescue, and French was drowned".

Here is the “Record of Deceased Soldiers’ Effects” entry for Private French:



I think this document rather than the newspaper article and the battalion medals rolls have his second initial correct as he is recorded on the battalion war memorial in Lichfield Cathedral as Private A E French. More by good fortune than skill I have come across the Militia attestation papers for Albert Ernest French born in Bristol and living in Willenhall, Staffordshire at the time he attested. Initially he enlisted in the 3rd (Militia) Battalion of the South Staffordshire Regiment (SSR) on 1 October 1897 with the regimental number 4514. Two and a half months later he upgraded his membership of the regiment when he joined the 1st Battalion and was given the new regimental number of 5199.

From early February to early May 1901 the 1/SSR garrisoned Ficksburg except for the Mounted Infantry Company (MIC) who were deployed in the Transvaal. Presumably Albert “got into” the Caledon River accidently. In the autumn of 1897 he had claimed to be 18 years of age exactly and was measured at 5 ft 4½ inches tall and only 7 stone 11 lbs in weight. Presumably he bulked out in the intervening years but one could imagine he would have physically struggled with the fast flowing water. DOES ANYBODY KNOW OF A CONTEMPORARY PHOTO OF THE CALEDON RIVER NEAR FICKSBURG? – preferably in flood.

As Neville has noted 5590 Private J Joyce was killed in action 6 months after his attempt to save the life of his comrade and consequently his “Record of Deceased Soldiers’ Effects” entry can be found:



As you can see on 25 September 1901, he also died in the vicinity of a river but much further north. A transcribed SAFF record on Find my Past gives the location as “Vandyks Put” which means nothing to me or Dr Google – CAN ANYBODY HELP ON THIS ONE?

The SAFF record also says he was a member of the 11th Mounted Infantry and a Lance-Corporal at the time of his death. As stated above the MIC were deployed in the Transvaal when Albert drowned, hence Private Joyce must have been a late transfer to the MIC.

Finally I was surprised to find a “Record of Deceased Soldiers’ Effects” entry for 5189 Huston:



As you can see his initial was H despite what some records say and by the time of his death he had been promoted to full Corporal. Having his full name caused his Militia attestation papers to surface and the other information given made him an easy target on Ancestry. So here is the short life and times of Herbert Aston Huston (1880-1903).


Herbert was born in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire somewhere between the middle of February and end of March 1880. Thus he appeared on the 1881 Census as a 1 year old living with his parents Edward (a French Polisher) & Alice (neé Aston) and three elder brothers at 12, St James’s Square, Wolverhampton. His father was born in Wolverhampton but his mother came from Crewe (famous for its railway connections) in Cheshire and his two eldest brothers were born in Liverpool, but he and Peter W(illiam) were born in Wolverhampton. His father died in 1890 and by the time of the 1891 Census Alice had taken in a lodger to help make ends meet – a 33 year old Irish woman who earned her rent money by working as a “Hawker”. Herbert now had a younger sister named after his mother and aged 8 at the time.

On 17 September 1897 in Lichfield, Herbert attested for militia service with the 3rd Battalion SSR and two and a half months later, like Albert Ernest, upgraded his membership status by joining the 1st Battalion. In both these actions he was a fortnight earlier than Albert Ernest French and it is interesting to compare their regimental numbers:

Herbert Aston Huston 3/SSR = 4478, 1/SSR = 5189
Albert Ernest French 3/SSR = 4514, 1/SSR = 5199.

This could be interpreted as showing between a quarter and a third (11 out of 37) liked what they saw when they joined the militia and a couple of months later became regular soldiers.

When he attested in September 1897, Herbert gave his age as 18 years 6 months which meant he had added a year on to his true age. He was working as a gardener for a lady he named as Mrs Dunstall, I don’t think he got this right and rather she was the lady who lived in the semi-ruinous Dunstall Hall (now demolished) – was she Wolverhampton’s Mrs Haversham and did Herbert narrowly escape “great expectations”? At the time he attested he was 5 ft 5 inches tall and only 7 stone 13 lbs so perhaps not the man you would pick out to save a drowning man from a raging river.

After his time in South Africa Herbert was transferred to the 2nd Battalion and joined them in southern India where he died in Agra on 30 April 1903. He was not the only one of the 2nd Battalion to die in Agra, I presume from disease rather than due to conflict.

So just over two years after the heroics of 18 March 1901 all three men were dead.

When Herbert went to India he joined his eldest brother, John. A few months after the 1891 Census John had enlisted in the South Staffordshire Regiment. Except for a short secondment to the Cheshire Regiment, John spent all of his 21 years of service in the 2nd Battalion who never got involved in the South African War of 1899-1902. By the time they met up again John had been promoted to Sergeant and was to retire as a Sergeant-Major. He had married India born Agnes Emilia Lopez in Madras in 1897 and they had four children including one named after her grandmother and Aunt Alice. When John retired he joined the Indian Railways and died two years later in Bengal, September 1914.

Regarding the division of Herbert’s effects one can treat Alice drawing the short straw, if you can call it that as one old penny in 1901 would be worth about 50 new pence today, as sex or age discrimination. The third brother is not on the list as he passed away in 1893 aged 19.

So Alice junior had it a bit rough – father died when she was 7, one brother died when she was 10, second brother died when she was 20, her mother died when she was 24 and another brother when she 31. Her only surviving brother lived until 1947 and she made it into her 80’s passing away in 1964, in the interim she had married a “railway engine stoker” in 1908 and had three sons who all outlived her.

The word railway appears 3 times in my script – I could have at least doubled that as while the 1891 Census return shows Herbert still at school all three of his brothers were railway workers.

The medals:

5199 Private French QSAM with 3 clasps – Cape Colony, Wittebergen & South Africa 1901
5590 Lance-Corporal Joyce: QSAM with 4 clasps – Cape Colony, Transvaal, Wittebergen & South Africa 1901; Royal Humane Society Bronze Medal
5189 Corporal H Huston: QSAM with 3 clasps - Cape Colony, Transvaal & Wittebergen; KSAM with both date clasps; Royal Humane Society Bronze Medal
3061 Sergeant-Major J Huston: Long Service & Good Conduct Medal.

Here's a photo of the Caledon River flowing in its beautiful surroundings.

Here's a photo of the Caledon River flowing in its beautiful surroundings.