The Jack Webb Collection of Medals and Militaria

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Transvaal, Wittebergen (1594 Gnr: W. A. Schultz, C.I.V.) with silver brooch bar, nearly extremely fine £100-£140

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Jack Webb Collection of Medals and Militaria.

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Provenance: bought by Jack Webb on Cutler Street, 1960 - note with medal states ‘the cause of all the trouble, being my first C.I.V. medal’

William A. Schultz served during the Boer War with the City Imperial Volunteers Battery, originally with the number 1565 which was changed to 1594 in March/April 1900. Extracts from three of his letters, written during the war, were printed in the City Press, the first being written shortly after his arrival in Capetown:

‘Gunner William A. Schultz, late of the H.A.C., and now of C Sub-division of the C.I.V., writing from Green Point Camp, Cape Town, on March 6th, says: “We arrived at Cape Town yesterday week, but were unable to land owing to several troopships waiting to be uploaded. We had to do all the unloading ourselves. You can bet it was a stiff job!” He adds, “The rations are very poor and scanty. However, I make up for it, and have a good blow-out in town whenever I can get off.” He concludes as follows: “I have to close now, having been ordered to grease some cart wheels! I do get some jobs to do I can tell you”.’ (City Press 31 March 1900)

Extracts from the second and third letters, published five months later, were written after the actions at Honings Spruit, Lindley and Bethlehem and strike a different tone:
‘Writing home from Lindley on June 30th Gunner W. A. Schultz, of the H.A.C., gives some interesting particulars about the battery. On arriving at Kroonstadt they were ordered to Honings Spruit, and there they had their first skirmish with the enemy. “We found,” Gunner Schultz continues, “the fight in full swing, and when our guns galloped up the Boers beat a hasty retreat. The loss on our side was five killed and 30 wounded but none of them belonged to our battery. We camped for the night, and the next morning returned to Kroonstadt, and had no sooner settled down to get a few hours’ sleep than we were ordered to escort a huge convoy to this place, which was very hard pressed; in fact, the garrison was on the point of surrendering. We had to fight our way through the whole time, and, although the distance from Kroonstadt to Lindley is only about 60 miles, it took us about four days to make it. We had a very hot time, shells and bullets flying around us. It was quite a new sensation, but after a bit I got quite used to it, and watched the operations through a spy-glass. Fortunately, we only had two of our men wounded, but there were some marvellous escapes. I could write page after page about our doings during the last week or so, but, as you can no doubt guess, I have no spare time. We are stuck here now for how long nobody knows. De Wet keeps on dropping shells about us now and again, but they do very little damage. The Boers favourite method is to watch and wait until they see one or two of us alone and then pop us off.”
On July 11th Gunner Schultz writes from Bethlehem. He says, “We left Lindley with the idea of cutting up a large force of Boers under De Wet, who were causing us a lot of trouble. We have hard fighting and steadily driven the Boers before us. I believe they are now almost surrounded, and I hope it won’t be many days before they are captured. We have only had two men severely wounded in our battery, but several of us have had very narrow escapes. The 38th Field Battery, who are working with us, were almost all wiped out a few days ago, every one of their officers being killed, and nearly every gunner either killed or wounded”.’ (City Press 22 August 1900)

Sold with correspondence and copied research into the identity and background of the recipient.