Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

South Africa 1877-79, no clasp (Asst. Commy. T. G. Alderton, A.S. Corps) extremely fine £500-600

Assistant Commissary Thomas Alderton, Adjutant of the Army Service Corps, who was drowned in crossing a river in the Orange Free State, near Bethlehem, on the 5th of April, 1879, was a native of Hastings, Sussex; his father being in trade in that town at the time of his birth. He was born in the year 1833, and at an early age was apprenticed to a grocer in the Scots Fusilier Guards; was promoted Sergent in a very short time; joined the regiment in the Crimea just after the fall of Sevastopol, and shared its perils and hardships through the severe winter which followed. At the expiration of the war he was transferred to the Military Train as pay-sergent at the depot; shortly afterwards he became Troop Sergent-Major, and in 1860, Quartermaster Sergent. In February, 1870, he obtained his commission in the Army Service Corps, and from that date until 1878, fulfilled his duties as an energetic officer at Portsmouth, Aldershot and Dublin.

On the 3rd of October, 1878 Alderton left Dublin to embark for South Africa. Arriving at Natal, he was there attached to the Commissariat under General Strickland, as Adjutant, until February, 1879, when he was sent by the General to the Orange Free State to purchase horses for the force. He arrived at the Ihlotic Heights, Baustoland, on the evening of the first of April, and put up at the house of Dr Taylor. On the following day he was occupied with his duties; he was then apparently in the enjoyment of good health, but during the night he became feverish, and, by the advice of his host, remained in bed throughout the succeeding day. On the third he was considerably better, but at the doctor’s request abstained from quitting the house, occupying himself with writing and inspecting horses from the verandah of his room. Characteristically desirous to perform his duty at all hazards, he started off, contrary to the doctor’s advice, on the morning of the 4th, on a ride of sixty miles, accompanied by two Europeans, his destination being the little town of Bethlehem, in the Orange Free State. About sun-down he reached the house of a Dutch farmer, with whom Dr Taylor had recommended him to put up, who advised him not to attempt to cross any of the streams, which were much swollen with rain, at night. In a letter written to Mrs Alderton, bearing date April 11th, 1879, Dr Taylor gives the following account of the manner in which he met his death :-

‘He said he must get to Bethlehem that night, and rode away, having with him two white men who went about with him and collected the horses as as he bought them. They came to the edge of the stream after dark, though the moon was up and then one of the men told him the water was dangerous, and said they had better remain on the bank till morning; but the Captain said he was anxious to get on and they must go through. The man accordingly went through first, riding one horse and leading the others and got safely up the opposite bank.’

‘The Captain and the other man now rode into the water together, and were crossing side by side when, suddenly, the Captain’s horse started in front of his servant’s, and he fell off the horse backwards into the water with a cry, and was gone. All the men saw of him was his two hands held out of the water above his head for an instant, and then he was hurried away by the current. They both jumped into the water, and dived and searched in all directions, but uselessly, the darkness hiding all objects from view. It is surmised that his spurs coming in contact with the horses flanks made it start forward suddenly, and throw its rider off backwards. Such is the sad story of his sudden death, which has cast a gloom over all of us here.’

The body was subsequently recovered and conveyed to St. Augustine’s Vicarage, Bethlehem, where it received Christian burial, the British flag its pall. ‘It will be a great source of comfort to you,’ continues Dr Taylor’s letter, ‘to know that your husband met his death in consequence of his anxiety to do his duty; the reason why he was in such haste being not from a desire to get into Bethlehem for his own personal convenience or comfort, but that he might pay off and discharge some men he had hired, in order that they should not be drawing pay from the government after their services were no longer required.’

Assistant Commissary Alderton was a zealous and energetic officer, popular not only in the corps, but beyond it. His capacity for work was great, his perseverance such as was well calculated to overcome the innumerable difficulties which beset the path of the officer in the department of the service to which he belonged. His loss is deeply mourned by all who knew him: his death has caused a void which will not readily be filled up.