The Jack Webb Collection of Medals and Militaria

City of London Imperial Volunteers for South Africa 1899-1900 Medallion, 76mm, bronze, the obverse featuring a seated female figure with sword, presenting the freedom of the city to a uniformed man in the City Imperial Volunteers, the reverse featuring the radiant sun of the British Empire shining behind a hill which is surmounted by a tall staff flying the Union Flag and C.I.V. Flag, guarded by two guns, the edge re-engraved in large capitals ‘In Memory of Lieut. W. B. L. Alt. City of London Imp Voltrs. Killed at Diamond Hill. 12th. June 1900. A Brave Son.’ in fitted and embossed case of issue, re-engraved naming, good very fine £240-£280

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

View
Collection

William Brian Lancelot Alt was born on 2 March 1877 at Chertsey, Surrey, the son of Colonel W. J. Alt, commanding the 22nd Middlesex Volunteers, into which unit Alt himself enlisted in 1894. Educated at Clifton College, where he was a scholar, and New College, Oxford; he had not quite finished his university studies when he sailed for South Africa on 20 January 1900 as a young Lieutenant with “H” Company of the Infantry Battalion, City of London Imperial Volunteers. He served in Cape Colony and Bloemfontein before taking part in the advance on Pretoria, marching through Lindley, Heilbron and Vredefort. He was killed in action at Diamond Hill, near Pretoria on 12 June 1900. Having been wounded in the arm earlier in the day, he returned to the firing line and later when about to get his wound redressed, he was shot in the temple. Buried at the foot of the kopje where he fell, near Kleifontein Farm, Lieutenant Alt was the only officer of the C.I.V. to lose his life during the Boer War.

Sold together with the following items: ‘Brian Alt’ a personal memorial volume based largely on letters, written by Lieutenant Alt, January to June 1900; two cartes de visite, one bearing a studio portrait photograph of Alt in C.I.V. uniform and another a photograph of Alt’s C.I.V. memorial in St. Mary Abbot’s Church, Kensington; ‘In Memoriam W.B.L.A.’ - a typed poem written by St. John Lucas, presented in small booklet form; and a small amount of copied research.