Pair: Sergeant E. W. Kemp, 1st Cinque Ports Volunteer Rifle Corps, Lewes and Hastings Contingents, who was decorated in the first Regimental award ceremony following the institution of the V.F.L.S. Medal in 1894

Volunteer Force Long Service Medal, V.R. (Sergt. E. W. Kemp.) contemporary engraved naming; together with the recipient’s Cinque Ports (Hastings) Volunteer Rifle Corps Coronation Medal, E.VII.R., bronze, unnamed, nearly extremely fine and better, the last scarce (2) £100-£140

Edward Winder Kemp was born in Woolwich around 1850, the son of John Kemp and husband to Miss Emily Nye. Married at Lewes on 15 November 1873, he worked as a foreman in the town and is recorded in the Sussex Express of 5 April 1895 as having served 27 years and 7 months in the Lewes Contingent of the 1st Cinque Ports Royal Volunteer Rifle Corps at the time of his award. The newspaper adds:
‘The distribution of long service medals to past and present members of the above battalion took place on Saturday evening at Hastings, the head-quarter town. The men of the Lewes Company, who, as recipients of the medal, were largely in excess of any other company in the battalion, met at the railway station of the county town at 3.45, and proceeded to Hastings by train, arriving at their destination about five o'clock... Shortly after six o'clock the assembly took place in the Queen's-avenue, Queen's-road, Hastings, where the two Hastings companies also paraded under arms to do honour to the occasion.

The medallists paraded in alphabetical order, and at 6.25, preceded by the excellent band of the head-quarter companies and the two companies under arms, marched to the Public Hall, near the Albert Memorial, where the whole parade formed three sides of a square, facing inwards... The Brigadier of the district, Major-General Richards, made the presentation. The honour was instituted to mark zealous service of 20 years; service demanding sacrifice of time and leisure, and in a great many cases a great deal of money. This practical form of recognition [The Medal] could be handed down as heirlooms to their successors, and always be a source of pride. General Richards then pinned the medal on the breasts of the veterans, shaking hands with each.’

The circumstances regarding the naming on the edge of the medals were also - somewhat unusually - detailed in the same article:
‘Brigadier-General [sic] Richards announced that Colonel Brookfield desired him to mention that the War Office had acceded to a desire that the names of recipients and their service should be engraved on the medals. It had not been done on this issue of medals, as it would take a long time to return them for that purpose. But any recipient who now wished to have his name engraved should send his medal to the Adjutant.’

Having had his details suitably added to the Volunteer Force Long Service Medal, Kemp appears to have remained in the service of the Volunteer Corps, later transferring to the Hastings Contingent at the time of the 1902 Coronation; this medal duly displays the incorrect date, a reminder of the postponement of the occasion on account of the deteriorating health of the future King Edward VII.