Pair: Lieutenant J. Black, Royal Lancaster Regiment

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 2 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State (Lieut., Rl. Lanc. Rgt.); King’s South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps (Lt., Rl. Lanc. Rgt.) good very fine (2) £300-340

M.I.D. London Gazette 15 May 1917.

John Black was the second son of the late Professor Revd. John Black LL.D. of Aberdeen University. Educated at the same university, he was employed for some time with the Shaw-Wallace Company in the Far East. He volunteered for service in the South African War and was commissioned into the King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment. In the Great War he again volunteered for active service and was re-commissioned a Lieutenant in his old regiment and was employed at the War Ofiice. In November 1915 he was transferred to the General Staff in Egypt and thence to France where he was appointed D.A.A.G. on the Staff of the Royal Artillery. He was promoted Captain in 1916 and was mentioned in despatches in 1917. He was discharged on 31 July 1917 and was awarded the Silver War Badge. Captain Black died on 26 September 1917, aged 39 years, and was buried at St. Sever Cemetery, Rouen, France. In his obituary from The Times, 2 October 1917, his Colonel wrote of him, ‘I have lost a most valued and gallant Lieutenant. He never spared himself and was of the greatest help to me and I owe him a heavy debt of gratitude for the efficient way he organised and ran his section’. Sold with copied research.