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 inscribed in large capitals ‘F. G. [sic] Cousens, Captn. C.I.V.’, nearly extremely fine £200-£240

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

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Frederick James Cousens was born in Marylebone, London in 1860. An estate agent by civil occupation he was Commanding Officer of the 5th (West Middlesex) Rifle Volunteers detachment with the City Imperial Volunteers during the Boer War in South Africa, where he served as Captain and C.O. of “D” Company of the Infantry Battalion.

General Mackinnon’s ‘Journal of the C.I.V. in South Africa’ contains the following entries for 21 and 24 April 1900:
‘Marched sixteen miles to Kaffir River. A great many men again fell out owing to the heat: this makes me rather nervous for the future. Cousens was over come by heat, and has to go to Bloemfontein by train.’ Three days later: ‘Cousens tells me that the doctors won’t allow him to come to the front anymore, and he fears he will have to retire from the regiment.’

Cousens returned home, sick, on S.S. Armenian in June 1900, resigning his commission on grounds of ill health the following month. In August 1900 he gave evidence before the South Africa Hospital Commission regarding the conditions he had experienced at Portland Hospital between 22 April 1900 and 30 April 1900 and his further stay of six weeks at Bloemfontein Hospital. He represented the 5th (West Middlesex) Rifle Volunteers as Major and Commanding Officer at the Coronation of Edward VII in 1902 and died in 1919, aged 58 years. He is buried in Hanwell Cemetery, Middlesex.