PRE WW1 QUEENS SOUTH AFRICA BOER WAR MEDAL PTE SMITH 6TH INNISKILLING DRAGOONS

Offered is a Queens South Africa Medal (1899 – 1902) with 5 clasps, CAPE COLONY, TRANSVAAL, ORANGE FREE STATE, SOUTH AFRICA 1901, SOUTH AFRICA 1902, period engraved named 4244. Pte. J. SMITH. 6/Drgns. Comes with copies service record, newspaper article, medal roll and 1911 census.

Dangerously ill enteric fever at Heilbron.

Isaac Smith was born at Smethwick Staffordshire in 1875. A slate maker by trade he enlisted with the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons 26/9/1899 at Birmingham. He served Home 26/9/99 – 14/12/00, South Africa 15/12/00 - 12/6/01, Home 13/6/01 – 27/11/01, South Africa 28/11/01 – 29/10/1902, Home 30/10/02 - discharged 18/4/1903 as medically unfit. A newspaper report 7/6/1902 records him as dangerously ill with enteric fever (Typhoid, which is caught from eating or drinking contaminated water/food) at Heilbron. Smith luckily survived and the 1911 census records him working as a labourer at the Birmingham Carriage works.

The British army lost 7,582 killed, but some 13,139 died of disease. More than half of British casualties during the war were caused by illness, especially typhoid fever, rather than enemy action.

The 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons landed in South Africa December 1899 and were immediately engaged in the fighting, they tended to be parcelled out as squadrons to various units for scouting work.