Rare animal bone brooch – Made by a Boer War prisoner following his capture at the Battle of Paardeberg in 1900 and subsequent imprisonment on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic

Stock Reference – MM-MIL-0002 

Rare animal bone brooch – Made by a Boer War prisoner following his capture at the Battle of Paardeberg in 1900 and subsequent imprisonment on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic 

You are looking at a very rare animal bone brooch, 4cm in height, in the shape of a cross or similar object, and inscribed ‘STH’ over ‘NELLE’ over ‘1901’, held within a metal tin with a slip of paper attached to the upper lid and a postcard loosely placed into the lid, on which is written; 

1899 – From – 1902

South Africa

Made by the Boer prisoners during internment at St Helena after Pardeberg where they surrendered.

Brought back by G R PALMER who guarded them and did duty in South Africa with the armed forces.

-

MEDALS

G R PALMER ex R.F.A

Great War 1914-1918

Queen Victoria South African for service in South African Campaign 1899-1902

and guarding Boer prisoners with the

Wilts Regt at St Helena

The 3^rd (Militia) Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment were embodied on the 16^th of January 1900, and having served a short time in Cork, Ireland, they were sent to St Helena, serving there from June 1901 to September 1902, guarding Boer prisoners at camps called ‘Deadwood’ and ‘Broad Bottom’. 

The battalion was disembodied on the 11^th of September 1902, and for their service they received the Battle Honour ‘St Helena 1901-2’, and its soldiers were awarded the Queen’s South Africa Medal. 

G R PALMER’S identity has been very difficult to establish, if indeed his identify has been established at all, but a GEORGE R PALMER has been found in the records, from the Preston area of Lancashire, and this piece of Boer War POW militaria was bought at an antique centre in the Haslingden area, around 15 miles away from Preston as the crow flies. 

GEORGE R PALMER of Preston 

On the 16^th of June 1915, GEORGE RICHARD PALMER married ELIZABETH KERRIDGE at Preston (registered Preston, June quarter 1915, volume 83 page 1349), and the marriage record provides that GEORGE was 31 years old at the time, so born c1883/84, a bachelor, a SOLDIER by profession, and his residence at the time of marriage was North Bradley in Wiltshire. 

Within the available military records, there is a record of a GEORGE R PALMER of the Royal Field Artillery (R.F.A.)....This record has very limited information, and it cannot be established what this soldier’s service number or actual war service was, but his address is recorded as 3 Box Cottages, Leyland Road, Penwortham, Nr Preston, Lancashire, so it is likely this GEORGE R PALMER and the GEORGE RICHARD PALMER who married ELIZABETH KERRIDGE are one and the same......The military record in question appears to relate to the issue of a ‘Silver War Badge’, which would suggest GEORGE was wounded in action or was injured or fell ill in some other way and had to return to civilian life. 

GEORGE and ELIZABETH PALMER appear in the 1921 Census at 101 Broughton Street in Preston, with the record describing GEORGE as 36 years and 4 months old, his place of birth as Trowbridge in Wiltshire, and his profession as railway parcel porter, and this census is important because Trowbridge where GEORGE was born and the village of North Bradley mentioned in the 1915 marriage record are less than 2 x miles apart, so they are in exactly the same area.   

GEORGE and ELIZABETH remained in Preston, being listed there in the 1939 Register, at 64 Greenbank Street, and again, with GEORGE employed as a railway parcel porter, and the 1939 record is also important because it tells us GEORGE was born on the 18^th of March 1884. 

It was assumed that GEORGE PALMER would be easy to identify within the earlier pre-Preston historical records, with a date and a place of birth to work with, but this has not been the case, even with the 1915 marriage certificate having been obtained, that tells us his father was JOHN PALMER, a mason by profession, who was seemingly alive at the time of the marriage, or with nothing to suggest he was deceased, however, through further research, a candidate has been identified and he is likely to be the person we are looking for. 

RICHARD GEORGE HANCOCK of North Bradley 

Within the parish records for the North Bradley area of Wiltshire, there is a baptism record for a RICHARD GEORGE HANCOCK, the son of JOHN and PHOEBE HANCOCK of North Bradley, who was born on the 18^th of March 1884 and baptised at North Bradley on the 5^th of January 1890, and there are three things that are of particular importance when you look at this baptism record in more detail, (1) the date of birth, which exactly matches that of GEORGE PALMER as it appears in the 1939 Register, (2) the place of baptism, North Bradley, which is also the residence of GEORGE RICHARD PALMER according to his 1915 marriage record, and (3) GEORGE’S father is called JOHN HANCOCK, a mason by profession, and the 1915 marriage record provides that GEORGE PALMER’S father was called JOHN PALMER and he was a mason.   

JOHN and PHOEBE HANCOCK can be found in the 1891 and 1901 Census records at Church Lane in North Bradley, with their children listed alongside them, including, on both occasions, RICHARD G HANCOCK aged 7 and 17 years respectively....Their children, up to the 5^th of January 1890 when they were all baptised at North Bradley, were known to be ARTHUR JOHN (born 1880), WALTER EDWARD (born 1882), RICHARD GEORGE (born 18^th March 1884), MABEL ANNE (born 1886), BEATRICE (born 1888) and AMY VIOLET (born 1889), and they had other children after this date.    

There is, within the available historical records, a document called a ‘Discharge Certificate of a Militiaman’, that details how Private 6355 GEORGE RICHARD HANCOCK enlisted into the 3^rd Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment on the 14^th of May 1900, and served for four years, including over one year abroad, in ‘SAINT HELENA’, for which he was awarded the Queen’s South Africa Medal with 1901-02 clasp. 

He was discharged from the militia in May 1904, but less than one year later, on the 27^th of February 1905, at Mountain Ash in South Wales, 21 year old GEORGE RICHARD HANCOCK of Trowbridge in Wiltshire, a mason by profession, enlisted into the 7^th Dragoon Guards (service number 6608), with his attestation papers providing that he was formerly of the 3^rd Battalion the Wiltshire Regiment, that he held the Queen’s South Africa Medal with 1901-02 clasp, and his father was Mr JOHN HANCOCK of Church Lane.   

Within only a short period of time, GEORGE started to appear within the 7^th Dragoon Guards defaulter book, for absence, insubordination, then absence again, on this later occasion from the 11^th to the 15^th of August 1907, to which he was confined to camp for a period of 10 x days and forfeited 5 x days’ pay, but on the 28^th of August, within only a few days of him finishing his 10 x day confinement, he left camp again and failed to return, with the word ‘DESERTED’ recorded in his service record, and on the 20^th of September 1907, so less than a month later, a ‘Court of Inquiry’ assembled and declared that “No. 6608 Private GEORGE RICHARD HANCOCK, of “A” Squadron) the 7^th Dragoon Guards, illegally absented himself from his corps at Danerham Camp, Hants, on the 28^th August 1907, and that he is still illegally absent’........Peacetime desertion was an offence that could result in a soldier being imprisoned under military law. 

The next historical record of note is an entry in the 1911 Census, that shows a 27 year old GEORGE PALMER, a mason by profession, born at Trowbridge in Wiltshire, lodging at an address in Ebbw Vale in South Wales.........There is no record of a GEORGE PALMER born c1884 in the Trowbridge area. 

The 1915 marriage record comes next but has already been discussed in some detail.   

Conclusion 

This POW made brooch was brought back to England by a soldier who, based on the contemporary information that accompanies it, was called G R PALMER, who did duty with the Wiltshire Regiment during the Boer War and then served with the Royal Field Artillery in WW1. 

Research led to GEORGE RICHARD PALMER being identified, who was born on the 18^th of March 1884 at Trowbridge in Wiltshire, married ELIZABETH KERRIDGE at Preston on the 16^th of June 1915, was a soldier at the time of the marriage, with his residence recorded as North Bradley in Wiltshire, and with his father named as JOHN PALMER a mason, and it is likely he is the GEORGE R PALMER, a soldier with the Royal Field Artillery, who had applied for the Silver War Badge in February 1918, who was living in the Penwortham area of Preston at the time.....GEORGE RICHARD and his wife ELIZABETH remained in the Preston area. 

No GEORGE RICHARD PALMER could be found in the Trowbridge area, either born there or living there, and nobody of that name could be found within the available Boer War or Wiltshire Regiment records either, however, a RICHARD GEORGE HANCOCK (alternatively GEORGE RICHARD) was found, he being the son of JOHN HANCOCK, a mason by profession, of North Bradley in Wiltshire, who had exactly the same date of birth as GEORGE RICHARD PALMER, the 18^th of March 1884, was found to have enlisted into the 3^rd (Militia) Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment in May 1900, in the name GEORGE RICHARD HANCOCK, to have served in Saint Helena, and to have been awarded the Queen’s South Africa Medal. 

GEORGE RICHARD HANCOCK left the 3^rd Battalion in 1904, and the following year, he enlisted into the 7^th Dragoon Guards, and he remained with this regiment until the 28^th of August 1907, at which point he failed to return to his unit and effectively went AWOL, with the word ‘DESERTED’ recorded in his military service record. 

Taken all together, the available evidence tells us GEORGE RICHARD HANCOCK served with the Wiltshire Regiment in St Helena during the Boer War, and joined the 7^th Dragoon Guards in 1905, but he failed to return to his regiment in the August of 1907, and by 1911, accepting that he is the person named in the 1911 Census at Ebbw Vale, he had by that time adopted a new surname and therefore a new identity, and this was the name he used when he enlisted into the army during WW1, married ELIZABETH KERRIDGE in 1915, and used in all events afterwards.   

As to why the PALMER surname was selected, well this isn’t clear, and there are no immediate connections between this surname and that of the HANCOCK family. 

As for GEORGE PALMER’S service during WW1, well unfortunately, the Silver War Badge application is the only record that can be found, and it gives no information as to his service number or sub-unit within the RFA, so nothing to assist us in identifying further records, if indeed any records exist....There are a number of GEORGE PALMERS who appear within the WW1 ranks of the Royal Field Artillery, but there is nothing within the available information relating to these men to suggest that any of them are our soldier named in the Silver War Badge record, so until further information comes to light, GEORGE’S WW1 service remains a mystery.    

SELLER NOTE = Supporting documentation obtained and / or created during this research will be provided.