Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Chief Steward A. Duncan, Natal Naval Corps, late Volunteers

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 1 clasp, Defence of Ladysmith (Ldg. Gnr., Natal Naval Vols.); Natal 1906, 1 clasp, 1906 (Chief Steward, Natal Naval Corps); Coronation 1902, bronze; Colonial Auxiliary Forces L.S. & G.C., E.VII.R. (C.S., N.N.C.), sometime cleaned and lacquered, edge bruise to the last and contact marks, otherwise generally good very fine and a unique combination of awards to the Corps (4) £1200-1500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Barrett J. Carr Collection of Boer War Medals.

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Collection

Ex Captain K. J. Douglas-Morris collection, 12 February 1997 (Lot 431).

Just 126 Queen’s South Africa Medals were awarded to the Natal Naval Volunteers, 64 of them including the “Defence of Ladysmith” clasp.

On 30 April 1885, Natal took the first step towards creating a Naval Auxiliary Force in South Africa by establishing the Natal Naval Volunteers of Durban, Duncan enlisting in the newly formed 100-strong force as a Gunner in the following month. Mobilised at the end of September 1899, he served as a Leading Gunner in Commander Tatum’s contingent at the defence of Ladysmith, when he was present in the action at Caesar’s Camp on 6 January 1900. He was also among those chosen to represent the Volunteers at King Edward VII’s Coronation in 1902 and one of just five men from the unit to receive the appropriate Medal.

In 1904 the unit’s title changed to the Natal Naval Corps, and in July of the following year Duncan was awarded his Colonial Auxiliary Force L.S. & G.C. Medal, one of just eight such awards ever given to the Corps and the only one to a Chief Steward. He subsequently served in the Bambata Rebellion in 1906, when the N.N.C. was initially employed in the ‘drive’ through the rebel-infested Nkandhla Forest, partly as Field Artillery and partly in an infantry role, the whole under the command of Commander F. Hoare - of the 203 Medals awarded to the Natal Naval Corps, 136 of them were issued with the dated clasp.