The Jack Webb Collection of Medals and Militaria

Pair: Private A. J. Cates, 24th Middlesex (Post Office Rifles) Rifle Volunteers and City of London Imperial Volunteers, later Sergeant, Army Post Office Corps

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal (549 Pte. A. J. Cates, C.I.V.); King’s South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (613 Serjt: A. J. Cates. A.P.O. Corps.) light contact marks, good very fine (2) £240-£280

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Jack Webb Collection of Medals and Militaria.

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Albert John Cates was born in Richmond, Surrey on 17 June 1875. A Post Office sorter, he enlisted into the 24th Middlesex Rifle Volunteers (Post Office Rifles) on 4 December 1895 and served with their detachment of just 7 men in South Africa during the Boer War in the Infantry Battalion of the City Imperial Volunteers. The City Press, reporting on 17 January 1900, that Private Cates together with Private J. W. J. Westwood , had been given a farewell dinner at the ‘Royal Mail’ on Noble Street, by the General Post Office sorting staff on 11 January 1900, and that he had been given a pair of field glasses and a purse.

Cates further served in the South African War in the Army Post Office Corps, 1901-1902, qualifying for the King’s South Africa Medal as a Sergeant. Returning to England he was discharged, time expired and re-attested for the Army Post Office Corps (1st Class Army Reserve) at Birmingham on 18 April 1904, serving until discharged, 17 April 1910, in consequence of the termination of his period of engagement. He died in Surrey, England in 1916.