Five: Sergeant T. B. Clark, Royal Army Medical Corps, late Nelson Corps, St. John Ambulance Brigade, who served aboard the American hospital ship the S.S. Maine during both the Boer War and the Boxer Rebellion

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 1 clasp, Cape Colony (Private. T. B. Clark, 1136. St. Johns. Amb. Bde.) re-engraved naming; China 1900, no clasp (1136 Pte. T. B. Clark. St. John Amb: Bde:); British War Medal 1914-20, naming erased; Victory Medal 1914-19 (25554 A.S. Sjt. T. B. Clark. R.A.M.C.); St. John Medal for South Africa 1899-1902 (1136. Pte. T. B. Clark. Nelson Corps.) together with the recipient’s St. John Ambulance Association Re-Examination Cross, bronze (No. Thomas B. Clark 83449); and an S.S. Maine American Ladies’ Hospital Ship Fund Commemorative Medallion 1899, 44mm, white metal, unnamed, very fine (7) £600-£800

Dix Noonan Webb, July 2018.

Thomas Bryan Clark served with the St. John Ambulance Brigade on the staff of the American Hospital Ship the S.S. Maine during both the Boer War in South Africa and subsequently the Boxer Rebellion in China, landing at Wei-Hei-Wei on 6 September 1900, and arriving at Taku on 27 September of that year. He subsequently served with the Royal Army Medical Corps during the Great War.

The S.S. Maine was originally the Atlantic Transport Line steamer Swansea, renamed in 1899 and lent to the British Government as a hospital ship for use in the Boer War, and later off China during the Boxer Rebellion. Fitted out as a hospital ship in London by Messrs. Fletcher & Son and Fearnall Ltd., the costs were met by the American Ladies Hospital Ship Fund, under the Chairmanship of Lady Randolph Churchill, mother of the future Prime Minister, who struck the above medallion to help with their fund raising.