British South Africa Company Medal 1890-97, reverse undated, 1 clasp, Mashonaland 1890 (Tpr. S. Bartlett, B.S.A.C.P.) edge bruise, otherwise good very fine £1200-1400

Samuel James Bartlett was born at Port Elizabeth on 13 July 1871, and was one of the first recruits to the newly formed British South Africa Company Police. He attested on 2 December 1889 at the age of 19 and was allotted the regimental No. 11. His horse died a few days out from Kimberley en route for Macloutsie, and he marched the rest of the way. He served in “B” Troop in the Pioneer Column of 1890, and, according to a statement in his application for the Mashonaland 1890 medal he ‘was the first man of the B.S.A.P. to do picket duty on the Kopje the day we arrived in Salisbury’. He was still serving in “B” Troop in September 1891, but was discharged on 14 October 1891. He married Lucy Maude Mashford at Kimberley on 24 July 1901, and was still living there in June 1940. Sold with various documents copied from the Southern Rhodesia archives and 3 copied photographs including one of him in uniform in June 1890 and another with a group of ‘Pioneers’ on Occupation Day 1934.