Orders, Decorations and Medals

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Relief of Kimberley, Paardeberg, Transvaal (5794 Pte. T. Jayes, E. Kent Regt.) edge bruising, contact marks, nearly very fine £140-180

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of Brigadier Brian Parritt, C.B.E..

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Thomas Henry Jayes was born in Sheerness, Isle of Sheppey, Kent and lived and enlisted at Woolwich. Serving with the East Kent Regiment he served in the Boer War and was one of a small number of men of the regiment who served in the Mounted Infantry to be awarded the clasp ‘Relief of Kimberley’ (British Battles and Medals state that four men of the East Kent Regiment were awarded the clasp; research with the lot suggests the number awarded the clasp was higher). With the 1st Battalion East Kent Regiment, Jayes entered France on 7 September 1914. Later transferring to the 2nd Battalion, he died of wounds on 18 May 1915. He was buried in the Harlebeke New British Cemetery, Belgium. The location of the cemetery, which was on land not held by the British until late in the war, suggests the possibility that Jayes died as a prisoner-of-war of the Germans. Sold with copied research.