For sale is a Egypt medal (1882), with clasp GEMAIZAH 1888, impressed named 2736 PTE S. TE,PEST. 2/K.O. SCO. BORD.; India Medal (1895), with clasp RELIEF OF CHITRAL 1895, period engraved named 2736 PTE S. Tempest, 2nd BTT. K.O. Sco. Bord.; Queens South Africa Medal (1899 – 1902) with 5 clasps CAPE COLONY, PAARDEBERG, JOHANNESBURG, DIAMOND HILL, WITTEBERGEN, impressed named 2376 PTE S. TEMPEST. K.O.SCOTT. BORD.; Imperial Service Medal (G.V.R.) impressed named SQUYIRE TEMPEST.; Khedives Star (1882), impressed 2736 to reverse. Court mounted for display, with KC K.O.S.B. cap badge They come with copies of medal
rolls, census records, London Gazette extracts and
newspaper articles.
Squire Tempest was born about 1870 in Holbeck, Leeds, England. He enlisted into the Kings Own Scottish Borderers serving with the 2nd Battalion, possibly enlisting about 1887. The normal length of service was 7 with the colours and 5 with the reserve. He was present with the battalion for the action at Gemaizah on 20/12/1888. The battalion had been stationed at Aden prior to deploying to the Sudan for the campaign and at the completion returned to India where it was involved in the Relief of Chitral in 1895. He may have discharged shortly after this as the roll was compiled in 1896 and he is marked transferred to the reserve.
He returned to Yorkshire and obtained employment in the Prisons department as a warder. He was stationed at Wakefield Prison when the Boer War broke out. He was recalled to serve with the 1st Battalion K.O.S.B. in South Africa in late 1899. The 1st Battalion sailed on the Braemar Castle and Goorkha at the beginning of January 1900 and arrived at the Cape about the 26th.
Once in South Africa each battalion was required to provide a company to be used as mounted infantry. Tempest served with the 7th Mounted Infantry, which was provided by the 14th Brigade 7th Division. In February 1900 it was part of Roberts’ Field Army as the 1st Mounted Brigade comprising of :1st Mounted Infantry, 3rd Mounted Infantry, 5th Mounted Infantry, 7th Mounted Infantry, New South Wales Mounted Rifles, Roberts’ Horse, Kitchener’s Horse, Grahamstown Volunteer Mounted Infantry, City Imperial Volunteers (CIV) Mounted Infantry.
The book by Murray Cosby Jackson ‘A Soldier’s Diary: South Africa 1899 – 1900. The experiences of a NCO of the Hants Regiment and 7th Mounted Infantry during the Boer War’ (London: Max Goschen, 1913; reprinted Leonaur 2009) is recommended reading.
He served just over a year in South Africa returning to England in February 1901. He was welcomed back to a rousing reception by the members of the Boys Brigade in Wakefield. The local newspapers report that he was a well-known man in Wakefield. The 1901 and 1911 census records him still working as a Warder. He was awarded his Imperial Service Medal in 1929 still employed with the Prison Service. He died in 1936 at Sculcoates, Yorkshire.
It is highly probable that his grandfather or another close relative is the same Squire Tempest from Bradford, Yorkshire, who fought at Waterloo with the 33rd Regiment of Foot.
