Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Gunner W. H. Watkins, ‘Q’ Battery, Royal Horse Artillery - in ballot for ‘Sannah’s Post’ V.C.

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 6 clasps, Relief of Kimberley, Paardeberg, Driefontein, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, Wittebergen (33655 Gnr. W. H. Watkins, Q.B., R.H.A.); King’s South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps (33655 Gnr. W. H. Watkiss, R.H.A.) note variation in surname, some contact marks, about very fine (2) £1000-1200

Ex D.N.W. 23 September 2011.

Resulting from De Wet’s ambush of General Broadwood’s Brigade at Korn Spruit (Sannah’s Post), “Q” Battery Royal Horse Artillery behaved with great gallantry and managed to save four of its guns from an apparently hopeless situation. The conduct of the battery was praised by Brigadier-General Broadwood in his report on the action. As a result of this report, Lord Roberts took the unusual step of ordering the battery to ballot for the Victoria Cross, to choose one officer, one non commissioned officer, one gunner and one driver to receive the coveted award, there being no other fair way to choose four from so many who performed so heroically on that day. As a result, Major Edmund John Phipps-Hornby, Sergeant Charles Edward Haydon Parker, Gunner Isaac Lodge, and Driver Horace Henry Glasock were each awarded the Victoria Cross. Gunner W. H. Watkin’s name would have been in the ballot for the Victoria Cross to the ‘Gunner’. With copied roll extracts.