Orders, Decorations and Medals

Four: Sapper F. Boniface, Royal Engineers, late Royal Sussex Regiment

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1902 (4411 Pte., Rl. Sussex Regt.); 1914-15 Star (2203 Spr., R.E.); British War and Victory Medals (2203 Spr., R.E.), generally good very fine (4) £120-150

Frank Boniface was born in Felpham, Sussex in December 1874 and enlisted in the Royal Sussex Regiment at Chichester in September 1893, aged 19 years. Having then deserted in the following month, he was sentenced to 10 days imprisonment before returning to duty with an appointment in the 2nd Battalion, shortly to be embarked for India, and thence, in February 1902, to South Africa, although Boniface actually served in the 2nd Battalion from March of the same year, qualifying for the above described Medal & clasps. Transferring to the Army Reserve that December, he was discharged in September 1905, and found employment as a postman in Bognor, Sussex, but in April 1915, he re-enlisted in the Royal Engineers, originally being appointed a Sapper in the 1/1 East Anglian Divisional Signal Company (T.F.). Boniface subsequently witnessed active service as a Telegraphist in the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, including the latter part of the Gallipoli campaign, and was transferred to the Reserve at Chatham in July 1919.