Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An interesting Boer War D.C.M. pair awarded to Private G. G. West, Cape Town Highlanders, who,  having absconded from Dartmouth Naval College, made his way to South Africa and enlisted under the alias ‘John Moore’: he was subsequently killed in action at Jacobsdal on 25 October 1900, having been - by popular family account - recommended for the V.C.

Distinguished Conduct Medal, V.R. (1005 Pte G. G. West, Cape Town Highrs), initials and surname corrected from his alias ‘J. Moore’; Queen's South Africa 1899-1902, 2 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State (1005 Pte. J. Moore. Cape Town Highrs), together with a South Africa 1900 chocolate tin, extremely fine (3) £2000-2400

D.C.M. London Gazette  27 September 1901.

Mention in despatches London Gazette 16 April 1901.

The following account of George Gill West’s life was written by his nephew:

‘As a child he was ‘tongue tied’ and several operations failed to make him able to talk. It was later discovered that his brain was so active he could not express himself, but just before his ‘teens he spoke naturally and speedily. He was a musician, an athlete and a scientist. A desire to see the world prompted him to join the Royal Navy and he was determined to become an officer.

He was a good sailor and was permitted to apply for officer status and passed every examination with distinction but he could not qualify because his family had no previous naval background and certainly none of rank. He persuaded my father, who had been recently discharged from the Royal Artillery after a full term of honourable service, to aid his desertion from the Navy rather than return to ordinary seamanship and my father bribed a member of the Union Castle Line to take my uncle to Cape Town for payment of £5.

On arrival in Cape Town, my uncle trekked to Kimberley, where he was a pioneer miner. He installed the first known electric lighting. He was much respected by the Boers and other residents and after an order that all British persons must leave for Cape Town, he was assured that he could go on the last train, liable to attack en route. Unfortunately this train was attacked and all of his possessions, including his clothes, were taken, making his arrival in Cape Town an unhappy one.

Regardless of the friendships he had made up country, he had no alternative but to join the forces and he was enlisted as a Cape Town Highlander. His departure on service was almost immediate and his company was installed in a block house which was comparatively safe in enemy territory.

The doctor’s son endeavoured to reach his father in the block house but was shot down and lay within sight of his father. My uncle disregarded the enemy fire and brought the son in but his body was riddled with bullets.

For this act my uncle was recommended for the Victoria Cross and all preliminaries were in progress when it was discovered that he was a deserter from the Navy and was thus automatically disqualified. The special act of bravery was, however, rewarded by a pardon and reinstatement as George Gill West, instead of ‘John Moore’ his assumed name, and his bravery award for distinguished conduct in the field bears, by order, his correct name.

This and an account of his death later at Jacobsdal on the Modder River, is recorded in “The History of the Great Boer War” ... Needless to say his first letter home from South Africa enclosed £30 to more than cover the cost of his outward passage.’

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including:

(i)
Four letters from the recipient to his brother and sister, all from South Africa, one dated the ‘23rd’ at ‘Jacobsdal, O.R.C., S. Africa’, so possibly in October 1900, two days before his death in action.

(ii)
An envelope addressed to the recipient in ‘B’ Company, Cape Town Highlanders, with Cape Colony stamp marks for the 7th and 19th November 1900, and red ink endorsement, ‘Killed in action at Jacobsdal 25/10/00’.

(iii)
An old hand-written account of the recipient’s life, 3pp., with a pasted-down drawing of his sister - ‘George Gill West, the brother of my mother, drew this of her before his departure to S.A.’; together with another account of the recipient’s life, 4pp., dated 18 February 1968, as written by the recipient’s nephew, H. Monk.

(iv)
A portrait photograph of the recipient, in uniform; assorted Boer War newspaper cuttings, including a Times report on the attack on the Cape Town Highlanders at Jacobsdal on 25 October 1900.