Medals to The Gordon Highlanders and Associated Units from the Collection of A.J. Henderson

Pair: Colour-Sergeant T. Grant, The Gordon Highlanders

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 5 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Johannesburg, Belfast, South Africa 1901 (8054 Cpl., Gordon Highrs.); Volunteer Force Long Service, E.VII.R. (3393 Cr. Sgt., 4th V.B. Gordon Highrs.) last clasp unofficially riveted, generally good very fine (2) £140-160

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals to The Gordon Highlanders and Associated Units from the Collection of A.J. Henderson.

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Colour-Sergeant Thomas Grant, a native of Rhynie in Aberdeenshire, joined the 4th Volunteer Battalion of the Gordon Highlanders on the outbreak of hostilities in South Africa, where his unit formed part of the 1st Service Company to reinforce the 1st Battalion of the Regiment.

The 1st Service Company left Aberdeen in February 1900 and embarked on the R.M.S. Guelph at Southampton. From there its volunteers sailed to Cape Town, where they disembarked on 15 March. They then went by rail to Donkerspruit in the Orange Free State, where they joined the 1st Battalion at Kaal Spruit on 12 April.

While with the 1st Battalion, the Company was present at the engagements at Mount Thaba (30 April), Zand River (9 May), Doornkop (29 May), Six Mile Spruit (4 June), Pretoria (5 June), Leekoehoek (11 July), Olifant’s Nek (21 July), Belfast (27 August) and Lydenberg (7 September), and was present when the 1st and 2nd Battalions met at the latter place on 8 September 1900. In the following month the Company prepared for its journey home, and following a stay in Cape Colony, it returned to Aberdeen in early May 1901.

Grant appears in a group photograph of the volunteers from his Battalion which was published in A Record of Northern Valour.