The Jack Webb Collection of Medals and Militaria

A Boer War D.C.M. pair awarded to Sergeant P. S. Taylor, Honourable Artillery Company and City of London Imperial Volunteers, almost certainly for his gallantry at Barkin Kop on 3 July 1900, where he and Sergeant Dixon of the C.I.V. Battery fought their guns back to back and drove off a Boer Commando, before recapturing three guns of the 38th Battery

Distinguished Conduct Medal, V.R. (1028 Serjt: P. S. Taylor. C.I.V.); Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Transvaal, Wittebergen (1028 Sgt. P. S. Taylor, C.I.V.) minor edge bruise to DCM, good very fine (2) £2,400-£2,800

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

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Provenance: Sotheby’s, June 1984.

D.C.M. London Gazette 27 September 1901
M.I.D. London Gazette 10 September 1901 - erroneously gazetted as Sergeant H.P.B. Taylor

One of only 14 Distinguished Conduct Medals awarded to the City Imperial Volunteers during the Boer War.

Percy Schall Taylor was born in 1870 and was a clerk by occupation. He joined the Honourable Artillery Company in 1894 and served as Sergeant of B Sub-division of the City Imperial Volunteers Battery in South Africa during the Boer War, commanding a gun. He was awarded the D.C.M., almost certainly for the action at Barkin Kop on 3 July 1900, where he and Sergeant Dixon of the C.I.V. Battery fought their guns back to back and drove off a Boer Commando. Three guns of the 38th Battery, which the Boers had taken, were then recaptured. By turning trail to trail to defend themselves, a previously unheard of procedure, they fought an action that was probably unique in Royal Artillery history.

‘The H.A.C. guns on the left, hidden by their fold of ground, were not actually affected by the sudden raid we have described; but until the Australians returned, they were also left without a single protecting rifle, while they had at the same time to meet an emergency of their own, an attack on the left flank in support of the frontal raid. and to meet it without assistance too, for the detachment on their left, unlike the Australians, were very slow in returning. At one time, accordingly, the two guns were firing trail to trail, one at the Boers on their left, and one towards the right, over the heads of the disabled 38th. Under these difficult and perilous circumstances perfect steadiness prevailed.’ (The H.A.C. in South Africa edited by Basil Williams and Erskine Childers)

The H.A.C. in South Africa clearly states on more than one occasion that the three sergeants of the H.A.C. with the C.I.V. to receive the D.C.M., namely Sergeants Dixon, Taylor and Wood, were also all mentioned in despatches in the London Gazette 10 September 1901. While the mentions for Dixon and Wood’s are correctly gazetted, a clerical error led to P.S. Taylor’s mention being erroneously credited to H.P.B. Taylor, also of the H.A.C.

Taylor rejoined the Reserve Battery of the H.A.C. for Home Service in September 1914, and was commissioned Lieutenant in the H.A.C. on 7 November 1914, and advanced Captain on 5 February 1915. He did not qualify for any Great War medals.