Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria. To coincide with the OMRS Convention

The Boer War medal awarded to Corporal Harry Cutler, City of London Imperial Volunteers

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 4 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill (287 Cpl. H. Cutler, C.I.V.) nearly extremely fine £400-500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Awards to Civilians from the Collection of John Tamplin.

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Henry Cutler, known as ‘Harry’, was born on 9 August 1877, in Old Brentford, Middlesex. He was employed in the City of London as a clerk, and was a Corporal in the 2nd Volunteer Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment, having passed the standard of proficiency as an Assistant Instructor of Signalling at Aldershot in December 1898. During the Boer War, he volunteered for service with the City of London Imperial Volunteers, and was attested as a Private on 1 January 1900. He went out to South Africa in the R.M.S. Kinfauns Castle, arriving at Cape Town on 15 February, and served in South Africa until 7 October 1900, when he returned to England in the S.S. Arcadia, which arrived at Southampton on the 29th of the same month. Once back in London, he was discharged at Guildhall on 30 November 1900, and returned to his office desk as a Commercial Clerk. Harry Cutler died of phthisis empyema on 2 December 1905, aged 28.

The medal is accompanied by an exceptional selection of original documentation, comprising: Assistant Instructor’s Certificate of Signalling, dated 9th December 1898; a Tea Menu and Concert Programme from the Castle Line S.S. Kinfauns Castle; his personal notebook containing nominal rolls, lists of kit, and a full list of their camps in South Africa from February to October; a remarkable series of 26 descriptive letters written home to his sister, January to October 1900; a C.I.V. post cardsent to his sister on arrival at Southampton; parchment certificates of Discharge and of Character on Discharge; his Copy of Freedom of the City of London, granted to all members of the C.I.V. in December 1899; Menu of the Welcome Home Dinner to the Brentford Contingent of the C.I.V., held on November 1st, 1900; a small portrait photograph of Cutler in C.I.V. uniform; issues No. 1 and No. 3 of the C.I.V. War Souvenir; and several contemporary news cuttings.