Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902 (2), 2 clasps, Tugela Heights, Relief of Ladysmith (91926 Gnr: H. F. Vowles, 73rd Bty: R.F.A.); 5 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (5173 Pte. J. O’Brien. 1/Welsh R.) surname unofficially renamed; the first polished and worn, this good fine, the second nearly very fine (2) £80-£100

Herbert Fry Vowles, a butcher from Cross, Compton Bishop, Somerset, was born in 1872. He attested into the Royal Field Artillery on 8 August 1892 and was transferred to the Army Reserve on 14 November 1898. He was recalled for further service on 9 October 1899 and served in South Africa with the 73rd Battery, during the Boer War, before being invalided home with cardiac disease on 6 August 1900. He died on 8 March 1901 and is commemorated on a plaque in St. Congar Church, Badgworth Somerset, together with his brother Percy Evans Vowles, 3rd Grenadier Guards, who died of enteric fever in Johannesburg on 10 June 1900.

John O’Brien, a labourer from Aston, Birmingham, was born around 1880. He attested into the Lincolnshire Regiment at Sheffield on 7 October 1898, stating that he was a member of the 4th Battalion, Oxfordshire Militia, before deserting after three weeks’ service. On 1 December 1898 he attested into the the 4th (Militia) Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment, before transferring into 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards on 31 January 1999, before once again deserting on 29 April 1899. Further enlisting into the Welsh Regiment under the false surname of ‘Carbery’, he served with the 1st Battalion in South Africa, during the Boer War. Upon his return home, he was returned to the Coldstream Guards on 16 October 1903, court martialled and imprisoned, before being further court martialled on 24 October 1903 for failing to appear in prison, and discharged. After his imprisonment on 2 July 1904, he was further court martailled by the Lincolnshire Regiment and sentenced to a further 140 days’ imprisonment, before his final discharge on 18 August 1904.

Sold together with copied service papers, copied research and copied medal roll extracts confirming the late issue of O’Brien’s Queen’s South Africa Medal on 27 November 1919.