A very rare Serbian “Gold” Medal of Zeal group of four awarded to 2nd Lieutenant J. D. Hoy, South African Forces, who served with the Imperial Light Horse in the German South-West Africa campaign in 1914, prior to being wounded in Egypt and gassed in France

1914-15 Star (Tpr., I.L.H.); British War and Bi-lingual Victory Medals (2/Lt.); Serbian “Gold” Medal of Zeal, bronze-gilt, extremely fine (4) £400-500

John David Hoy, an ex-Transvaal policeman who settled at Johannesburg as a gold miner, attested for the Imperial Light Horse in September 1914, aged 25 years, and served in the German South-West Africa campaign prior to being discharged in August 1915.

Next taken on the strength of the 3rd South African Infantry, he was embarked for service in Egypt, where he was advanced to Lance-Corporal in February 1916 but wounded in the right elbow by a gunshot later that same month. Evacuated on the hospital ship Gloster Castle to England, he was finally discharged from Richmond Park (S.A.) Hospital that July. Hoy was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in early November 1916, and, in the following month, was awarded his Serbian Gold Medal of Zeal, ‘for his distinguished service during the Egypt campaign’ (London Gazette 15 February 1917).

He appears at this stage to have been transferred to a Reserve Battalion, but he returned to France on active service in March 1917, where he remained until invalided home in October as a result of ‘traumatic orchitis’, the result of an old horse kick (undoubtedly very painful). Once again, however, he rejoined his unit at the front, and was severely gassed in an action fought on 20 April 1918. Duly evacuated, he was embarked for South Africa that September, and relinquished his commission ‘on account of ill-health caused by wounds’ in February 1919.

Withdrawn