Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Trooper J. M. ‘Johnnie’ Werrett, British South Africa Company Police, later Kitchener’s Fighting Scouts and Canadian Scouts

British South Africa Company Medal 1890-97, reverse undated, 2 clasps, Mashonaland 1890, Rhodesia 1896 (Tpr. Werrett, J. M. - B.S.A.C.P.); Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 4 clasps, Rhodesia, Relief of Mafeking, Orange Free State, Transvaal (1170 S.S. Maj: J. M. Werrett. Kitchener’s F.S.); official corrections to rank; King's South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (S.S. Major: J. M. Werrett. Canadian Scouts.) rank re-engraved, remainder officially impressed, contact marks, otherwise very fine and rare (3) £1,800-£2,200

John Mark Werrett - ‘Known as “Johnnie”, he had been a ringmaster in a circus. He attested on 7 February 1890 and served in D Troop. He had a beautiful singing voice, and at a troop concert visibly moved the audience with the rendering of his tenor song, “The Song that Reached My Heart”. He was discharged from D Troop on 17 September 1891, and later became a partner of Napier Bros. in a trading concern. The map of Matabeleland in F. C. Selous’ Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia, shows Werrett’s Store near the right bank of the Shangani River on the main road from Gwelo to Bulawayo. He served in the forces in the 1896 Matabele Rebellion, and in 1927 was living in Shangani.’ (Men Who Made Rhodesia, by Colonel A. S. Hickman, refers)

Werrett served as a Trooper in the Gwelo Volunteer Corps during the Matabele Rebellion of 1896. He was likewise a Trooper in “E” Squadron of the Rhodesia Regiment in Rhodesia, at the relief of Mafeking and in the Transval. The medal roll notes that he also served in the Commander-in-Chief’s Body Guard, Kitchener’s Fighting Scouts, and the Canadian Scouts, and that his clasp for Orange Free State appears to have been issued from one of these rolls.