Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Seven: Battery Sergeant Major J. Blowman, Royal Field Artillery, formerly Coldstream Guards

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 6 clasps, Belmont, Modder River, Driefontein, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, Belfast (839 Pte J. Blowman. Cldstm: Gds:); King’s South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps (839 Pte J. Blowman. Coldstream Guards.); 1914-15 Star (21673 B.S.Mjr. J. Blowman R.F.A.); British War and Victory Medals (21673 W.O. Cl.2. J. Blowman. R.A.); Defence Medal; Meritorious Service Medal, G.V.R., 1st issue (L-21673 B.S.Mjr: J. Blowman. R.F.A.); together with a Royal Life Saving Society Medal, bronze, reverse inscribed ‘awarded to Joseph Blowman Aug. 1905’, good very fine (8) £400-500

M.S.M. London Gazette 17 June 1918.

Joseph Blowman was born in 1879 in Sutton Hull, the son of Christopher and Sarah Anne Blowman (nee Garton) of 26, Mason Street, Hull. Aged 18, a hawker, he enlisted in the Coldstream Guards in 1897. He served for over 16 years, including South Africa from 28 October to 4 October 1902, taking part in at least six major battles. He was discharged from the Army Reserve on 15 March 1913. The 1911 Census notes that Joseph was a Police Constable with Hull City Police. He re-enlisted and served with the Royal Field Artillery during the Great War on the Western Front from 30 December 1915 and was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in June 1918 for services in France, whilst attached to the 32nd Divisional Ammunition Column. He died in Scunthorpe in 1961.