Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal (5765 Pte. W. Sparks, Somerset Lt. Infy.) edge bruising and polished, otherwise very fine £180-220

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to the 13th Regiment and Somerset Light Infantry.

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Walter (Jesse Ormond) Sparks was born near Bath and enlisted in the Somerset Light Infantry, via a Militia Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment, in February 1900. Sent out to the 2nd Battalion in South Africa at the end of the year, he was severely wounded in the stomach near Mooifontein, south of Bethel, on 25 May 1901, when the Boers mounted simultaneous attacks on the right flank and rear of a large British convoy as it departed camp. During the attack the enemy set fire to the surrounding dry grass and got close to the convoy under cover of the smoke, Sparks picking up the worst wound to be inflicted on the men of ‘C’ and ‘H’ Companies of the Somersets: it is highly likely, therefore, that it is he who was rescued by Lance-Corporal A. Hawes (see Lot 340). Sparks was discharged in May 1902, after a long period of time in hospital.