Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 1 clasp, Cape Colony (Lt. R. St. J. Carmichael: W. Rid. Rgt) engraved naming, extremely fine £160-£200

Reginald St. John Carmichael was born in Cork, Ireland, on 18 December 1874. Attesting for the 1st Battalion, West Riding Regiment on 28 September 1895, he served three years in Malta before passing his certificate in musketry at Hythe in 1899. Raised Lieutenant, Carmichael served in South Africa and is confirmed on the roll as entitled to the QSA, clasp Cape Colony. Forced to resign his commission on account of ill health in June 1901, he returned home to Boscombe and family tragedy; following a miscarriage, his wife Olive, aged 30 years, took her own life by overdosing on the pain killer and sleeping aid laudanum. The Western Gazette of 5 May 1905, notes: ‘Mr. Carmichael was most kind to the deceased in every way.’