Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Queen’s South Africa Medal awarded to Corporal W. Ferry, Mafeking Town Guard, who was a member of the Railway Division and in a daring exploit at the start of the Defence of Mafeking drove a train with two trucks of dynamite out of Mafeking and into the Boer position, 13 October 1899

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 1 clasp, Defence of Mafeking (Corpl: W. Ferry. Mafeking Town Gd:) nearly extremely fine £1400-1800

William Henry Ferry was born in Co. Kildare, Ireland, in September 1876 and emigrated to South Africa, where he was employed as a Railway driver. He served during the Boer War as a Corporal in the Railway Division of the Mafeking Town Guard, and was part of the garrison of Mafeking under the overall command of Major-General Baden-Powell that was besieged by the Boers from 13 October 1899 to 17 May 1900. During the siege the Railway Division was organised under the command of Captain John More, a resident railway engineer, and it is believed that Ferry was a member of the Nordenfelt gun crew on one of the armoured trains. What is certain is that Ferry was the driver of the train that pushed two trucks of dynamite out of Mafeking on 13 October to a distance of about five or six miles. Upon seeing a party of Boers in the distance Ferry shunted the dynamite in their direction before steaming back to Mafeking. The Boers fired on the truck which exploded with a huge bang, although Ferry returned with the train to Mafeking unharmed.

In April 1902 Ferry was one of the two drivers of the ceremonial funeral train that bore Cecil John Rhodes’ coffin from Cape Town to be buried in the Matopo Hills in Rhodesia, an epic journey where the train stopped at every station along the route to allow mourners to pay their respects. In later life he was employed on the Cape Town to Simonstown line.

William Ferry married Miss Mary Ann Crament in Bechuanaland, with whom he had five children, one of whom, Gerald Edgar Ferry, was Mayor of Cape Town between 1967 and 1969. William Ferry died in Cape Town on 17 October 1944.

Sold with copied medal roll extract and other research.