Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An unusual Boer War C.B. pair awarded to Honorary Major-General T. J. P. Evans, Royal Marine Light Infantry, who was decorated for his services as O.C. Troops and Commandant P.O.Ws on St. Helena, where he also acted as Governor for several months in 1901

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, C.B. (Military) Companion’s breast badge, silver-gilt and enamel, with later swivel-ring suspension and riband buckle; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 1 clasp, Cape Colony (Lt. Colonel T. J. P. Evans, R.M.L.I.), good very fine (2) £1800-2200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals relating to the Boer War formed by two brothers.

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C.B. London Gazette 26 June 1903.

Thomas Julian Penrhys Evans was born in the Bombay Presidency in December 1854, the son of an Indian Army officer, and was originally commissioned in the Royal West Kents in April 1871, but later attended the R.N.C. Greenwich and transferred to the Royal Marine Light Infantry as a Lieutenant in July 1874. Serving variously in the Chatham and Plymouth Divisions and, from time to time, at sea, he gained steady advancement, attaining the rank of Major in January 1891 and being given the Brevet of Lieutenant-Colonel in January 1898.

As per his service record, Evans served in the Boer War ‘on Special Army Service’ from February 1900, when he was graded as Assistant Adjutant-General and acted as Commandant of P.O.Ws at Simonstown in South Africa, and afterwards as O.C. Troops and Commandant P.O.Ws on St. Helena, including a stint of service as Acting Governor of the latter place in April-August 1901. An excellent account of the P.O.W. camps in Simonstown and St. Helena appears in Bryon Farwell’s Prisoners of War from The Great Boer War:

‘At first they had been kept on board transports converted into prison ships and anchored in Simon’s Bay, where their health suffered from the close confinement. But the British soon abandoned the prison ships, concluding that the practise was an ‘expensive, unsatisfactory and troublesome experiment’. Conditions were much improved when the prisoners were moved ashore to the sports ground at Green Point (now a suburb of Cape Town) or to the camp established at Simonstown - although an outbreak of enteric fever there took an number of inmates’ lives including the charming and attractive Mary Kingsley, traveller and ethnologist, who had gone to South Africa to nurse Boer prisoners.

The first overseas P.O.W. camp was established on the island of St. Helena when 514 Boers arrived on the Milwaukee on the 16 April 1900. The first prisoners were sent to Deadwood Camp, about 6 miles from Jamestown towards the eastern end of the island. An exception was made for Cronje and his wife (she was the only woman with the P.O.Ws) who were allowed to live under guard at Kent Cottage, 3 or 4 miles south west of Jamestown, and later at Longwood, which had been Napoleon’s home. A second camp was established on the island when quarrels broke out amongst the prisoners between the ‘irreconcilables’ and those who were willing to take the oath of allegiance and forget the war. This second camp for the ‘tame Boers’ was known as Deadwood No. 2 or the ‘Peace Camp’. Then there were further quarrels between Free Staters and Transvaalers and they had to be separated. So a third camp Broadbottom, was established about 5 miles away.

St. Helena eventually held both the first and the last of the important Boer generals captured by the British, for besides Cronje it also held General Ben Viljoen, who was ambushed and captured near the end of the war. On the 25 February 1902 Viljoen arrived on St. Helena aboard the Britannic (Captain E J Smith). Prisoners had few complaints about their treatment while in British hands. Cronje was always shown great respect while a prisoner. Instructions were issued that he was to be styled ‘general’ and to receive the same courtesies as a ‘British general not in employ’. En route to St Helena on H.M.S. Doris Admiral Robert Harris gave up his cabin to Cronje and his wife.

Commercial enterprise was not discouraged; there were camp canteens run by prisoners; St. Helena boasted a coffee house; M. J. Slabbert opened the President’s Café; Carl Le Roux opened a brewery; and Henry Cox set himself up as auctioneer and pawnbroker.

There were recreations too. On St. Helena there was a dramatic society, and a Hollander named Houtzagger wrote plays that were produced in the camp. L. H. L. Schumann wrote songs and had them published in England and St. Helena camps could boast a string quartet, a piano trio, a brass band, a male choir, a minstrel group and a debating society, a German club, an anti-smoking society and many sports clubs.

Some camps produced newspapers. On St. Helena there was De Krijgsgevangene (The War Prisoner), which declared ‘Fellow warriors who have fought with us and shared our trenches in the veldt are just as much Boer as we are’, after the British attempted to separate the foreigners volunteers amongst the P.O.Ws at Simonstown those who received a letter would mount a stone and read aloud as they were sure to contain news of other families and friends. The prisoners themselves tended to write more and more often; on St. Helena outgoing letters and cards increased from 14,000 a month between January and September 1901 to nearly 16,000 during the same months in the following year. The men were given envelopes and paper and there were no restrictions on the number they could send, but they had to buy their own stamps and all letters were censored. When it was discovered that some prisoner wrote secret messages under the stamps, letters had to be turned in unsealed with the stamps placed loose inside.

No one escape from St. Helena, although Sarel Eloff and some friends stole a boat and made an attempt. At the time the peace treaty was signed the British held 30,000 Boer P.O.Ws and 24,000 of these were held in camps outside South Africa.’

On Evans’ departure for the U.K., a recommendation was despatched to Their Lordships of the Admiralty, following a meeting held by the Colony’s Executive Council in December 1902:

‘It was proposed by the Governor and unanimously agreed by the Council that it be placed on record in these minutes the appreciation by the Council of the valuable services rendered to the Colony by Lieutenant-Colonel T. J. P. Evans, R.M.L.I., lately Commanding the Troops, not only as a Member of the Executive Council but also during a period of four months as Acting Governor, who left St. Helena to take up an appointment in England on 22 December last, and that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to Colonel Evans by next mail.’

He was advanced to substantive Colonel and nominated for the award of the C.B., which distinction he added to his Queen’s Medal & clasp, the latter for services in Cape Colony, in 1903. He was also mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 26 June 1903 refers).

Next appointed Colonel Commandant, R.M., in 1905, he was made an Honorary Major-General on being placed on the Retired List in April 1908. However, on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he applied for a position in the War Office, and was subsequently employed as a Deputy Assistant Censor, his name being brought to the notice of the Secretary of State ‘For valuable services rendered in the War’ on at least one occasion.

Evans died at Highcliff House, Newquay, Cornwall in May 1921; sold with a file of research.