Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 5 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (Lieut. C. E. A. L. Rumbold, 2/Drgn. Gds.) minor edge bruise, nearly extremely fine £300-400

Charles Edmund Arden Law Rumbold was born in Eltham, Kent, on 24 August 1872, the son of C. J. A. Rumbold Esq., and the great grandson of Sir Thomas Rumbold, Bart., and was educated at Harrow. He was commissioned Second Lieutenant into the 3rd (Militia) Battalion, the York and Lancaster Regiment, 8 November 1893, later transferring to the 2nd Dragoon Guards in 1900, and served in South Africa during the Boer War in the Cape Colony, December 1901 to January 1902; in the Orange River Colony, January to March 1902; and in the Transvaal, March to May 1902. On 12 January 1902 his unit returned to Winburg escorting a convoy of prisoners, and a lot of refugees and vehicles. Later that day fifteen Boers were reported hiding in a Donga, near the road. Rumbold's Troop was part of the advanced Squadron was sent to turn them out. The Troop was divided into two; Rumbold’s Troop found the fifteen Boers and engaged them; they fired at each other for some time, but when the other half of the Troop came up the Boers retired. Another small lot of 15 to 20 Boers were seen but they did not attack. One Private of ‘A’ Squadron was badly wounded and died of wounds later that night. The Troop thought they had wounded 1 or 2 Boers, however Rumbold ‘made an ass of himself by galloping in and making a report that the Troop were surrounded on all sides by about 1,000 Boers’. Promoted Lieutenant, he subsequently transferred to the Reserve of Officers in 1903. Mobilised for the Great War, he served on the Western Front from 4 November 1914 as a Captain in the 2nd Dragoon Guards, before transferring in March 1915 to the Inland Water Transport Unit, Royal Engineers (entitled to a 1914 Star, British War Medal, and Victory Medal.)

An author on the subjects of inland waterway yachting, marine motoring and hunting; Rumbold was made a Chevalier of the French Order of Maritime Merit, and, following the outbreak of the Second World War, wrote to the War Office on 9 January 1940, offering his services as having ‘greater knowledge of the inland waterways of Western Europe than any living soul’; the War Office thanked him for his offer but regretted ‘that there is no prospect of definite employment being offered’ to him. He died in Monaco on 9 April 1943.