The Barrett J. Carr Collection of Boer War Medals

Five: Acting 2nd Corporal A. W. Manly, Royal Engineers, late Royal Navy

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902 (Sign., H.M.S. Partridge), surname ‘Mauly’; Africa General Service 1902-56, 1 clasp, Somaliland 1908-10 (195020 2nd Yeo. Sigs., H.M.S. Hyacinth); Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Persian Gulf 1909-1914 (195020 2nd Yeo. Sigs., H.M.S. Hyacinth); British War and Victory Medals (271739 A. 2 Cpl., R.E.), ship’s name officially corrected on the third, very fine and better (5) £400-450

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Barrett J. Carr Collection of Boer War Medals.

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A total of 161 Queen’s South Africa Medals were awarded to the ship’s company of H.M.S. Partridge, 150 of them without clasp.

Alfred Wallis Manly was born in Chelsea, London in February 1882 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in August 1897. He subsequently served in the gunboat H.M.S. Partridge from May 1899 to May 1902 - other than a brief stint of attachment to H.M.S. Widgeon in late 1900 - a period that witnessed his advancement to Signalman and extensive service off South Africa. In point of fact, the Partridge boarded no less than three merchant vessels in the opening months of the conflict - one of them after firing a shot across the bows - and brought her 4-inch gun into action against a party of Boers in Hoetjes Bay, eight rounds of shrapnel at 3500 yards convincing the latter to beat a hasty retreat. Interestingly, too, she lent close support to the Rhodesia Field Force from April to July 1900, and while it is likely that many members of her crew were entitled to the appropriate clasp, ‘no claim was ever made’; for full details see Peter Singlehurst’s definitive history, Afloat and Ashore, The Royal Navy during the Boer War 1899-1902.

Manly witnessed further active service in the Somaliland and Persian Gulf operations as a 2nd Yeoman of the Signals aboard the Hyacinth, in which ship he served from March 1909 to October 1910, prior to being discharged ashore ‘time expired’.