Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Johannesburg (2914 Pte. F. Wells. North Staff: Regt.) very fine £80-£100

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to the Staffordshire Regiments.

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Francis Wells, alias Alfred Young, was born in Rugeley in 1871 and enlisted at Lichfield for the North Staffordshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’s) on 23 November 1889. A tailor by profession, he served in Mauritius, Malta and Egypt, and is confirmed in his Army Service Record as entitled to the 1896 Sudan Medal with clasp Hafir. It also notes a considerable number of entries in the Regimental Defaulter’s Book, including three weeks’ imprisonment with hard labour (for conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline) after offering his trousers for sale at Devonport.

Declaring his true name and age at Cairo on 21 January 1897, Wells was posted to South Africa with the 2nd Battalion on 14 January 1900. He subsequently transferred to the Reserve Depot and Headquarters Depot of the South African Constabulary and is later recorded as a ships steward. Recalled for duty in July 1916, he was posted to France in December 1916 and served at the Regimental Base Depot of the North Staffordshire Regiment. Transferred to the Labour Corps, his Army Service Record notes continual breaches of military discipline; it was around this time that he was confined to barracks for ten days after ‘shoving his dinner in the cook’s face’. This incident was followed by further altercations involving excess alcohol and disobeying orders. Admitted to No. 30 General Hospital at Calais, Wells was later invalided from service, the medical practitioners stating that he looked much older than his years.