Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, no clasp (Mr. L. C. Duncombe-Jewell “Morning Post”) good very fine £1,200-£1,600

Dix Noonan Webb, July 2001.

Louis Charles Richard Jewell was born at Liskeard, Cornwall, on 10 September 1866, and assumed the additional surname of Duncombe in accordance with his Grandmother’s will in 1895. Formerly a Lieutenant in the 3rd Volunteer Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, he represented The Times in Spain during the rumours of an impending Carlist rising in 1898-99, and served as a Special War Correspondent for the Morning Post newspaper in South Africa, the same paper that also employed Winston Churchill, with the 3rd Division South African Field Force.

In 1903, fleeing his creditors, he ‘re-invented’ himself, and taking up residence on the shores of Loch Ness, styled himself as Ludovic Charles Richard Cameron. Following the outbreak of the Great War he received a commission into the 8th (Reserve) Battalion, Cameron Highlanders, and as Lieutenant L. C. R. D. J. Cameron served during the Great War on the Western Front from 4 October 1915. He saw further service during the Second World War as an A.R.P. Warden, and died on 22 February 1947.

A ‘relentless, unashamed spendthrift, extraordinarily wasteful with money’, Duncombe-Jewell/ Cameron was often on the run from his creditors, and was declared bankrupt in 1920, but managed, through his literary output, to somehow keep his head above water. A noted historian, novelist and verse-writer, and made numerous contributions to the Pall Mall Gazette, Black and White Budget, and many other publications of the period. He was editor of Armorial Cornwall, founder and Hon. Sec. Celtic-Cornish Society, and leader of the Cornish Language Movement.

An interesting and lengthy article on the recipient, with three photographic images, was published over two parts in Medal News, in October and November 2023.

Sold with a USB stick of extensive copied research, including transcripts of his various newspaper articles and a photographic image of the recipient.