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General => Armed Forces => Topic started by: bkernos on Friday 28 January 22 01:16 GMT (UK)
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I have come across this photo of 3 distant cousins in the Zealey family, I am fairly sure that it is prior to WW1 as one of them immigrated to Australia in 1912. So can anyone identify what uniform and which war (if any) they relate to? They would be UK uniforms.
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With the number on the collar, I wonder if the middle chap was a policeman. :)
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I’m not having much luck trying to ID the medals. The chaps on right and left have a lot of clasps on theirs - one on right obscures the ribbon.
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At least one of them (William in the middle) was a policeman 1902-1920. I also have the same person with a military service age 18 in 1891, but no further information on his service.
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I looked through pages of medals but couldn’t see the policeman’s medal. Closest match I could find was Indian Mutiny Medal 1858 which is wrong time wise.
Where did you find the information on his military service? What was the duration of his service? It might help to narrow down what conflicts were going on in the world at that time.
India general service medal also looks right (right stripe placement at least) but the light stripe is too light to be the brown as in the medal ribbon, and unsure if dates work.
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Sydney Charles (bc.1881 Sevonoaks) seems to have taken part in the Boer War 1901-1902 in Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment - reg.no.6983. Plus a Thomas (bc.1878 Seal, Sevenoaks) in the same regiment - no.6835.
So, would seem the photo would have been taken after return from Boer War ca.1902-3.
Annette
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Good find Annette. Boer War was my first port of call to try to ID the medals (clearer on the chap on the left) but I didn’t think the second boer war medal/s ribbon tallied with the left one on his chest. (Not the Queens medal at least)
It’s not very clear on my screen but the three stripes of the medal on the right could align with the green white and yellow of the Kings South Africa medal.
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They could be Victorian Commemorative medals such as coronation or jubilee medals
Ady
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They could be Victorian Commemorative medals such as coronation or jubilee medals
Ady
I wondered that too, and it may be true of the middle chap’s medal, but the other two have clasps along the lines of:
https://www.bwm.org.au/medals.php
I’m just guessing though. :)
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You have their Regimental number, so If you check for the two soldiers in the Campaign Medal Roll on Ancestry, it will tell you which of the clasps each man was awarded for the Queen’s South Africa Medal.
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Just to confirm the collar dogs are RWK.
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One might suspect the two soldiers on the outside both have the Queen's South Africa Medal with campaign clasps, while the one on the left also has the King's South Africa Medal. The Queen's South Africa Medal was awarded for service in South Africa at any time between 11 October 1899 to 31 May 1902. The King's South Africa Medal was awarded to those who were in South Africa on or after 1 January 1902, with 18 months service completed before 1 June 1902.
As others have pointed out, the campaign medal rolls are available on Ancestry, so a trawl through those for the Royal West Kent regiment should soon show who was awarded what, and which campaign clasps were awarded to each man.
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Good evening,
Definately post 1902 because that is when the pointed cuffs came back after a period of jam pot cuffs.
The Slade Wallace belt would point to pre 1908 when leather equipment was replaced. For line regts the belt only as shown was worn with blues for walking out. Only the guards carried on wearing Slade Wallace equipment but in white but without the pack.
John915
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Good evening,
The policeman has the Queens medal for distinguished service.
John915