Queen’s South Africa Medal KSA & 1915 Star trio Worcester Rgt & Royal Engineers

A Queen’s South Africa Medal with Wittebergen, Transvaal and Cape Colony clasps and King’s South Africa medal 1901 & 1902 clasps correctly named to 4332 Private J Bagby Worcester Regiment along with a 1915 Star trio correctly named to 74042 Driver  John Bagby Royal Engineers. Comes with over 20 pages of copied service papers, court martial registers and medal rolls which confirm clasp entitlement and that the medals belong to the same man.

John Bagby was born in Wednesbury in 1877 and enlisted with the Worcester Regiment at Birmingham 20th May 1895 with the number 4332.  On 14th November 1895 he went to Malta with the 2nd battalion. During his time there he was court martialled twice. The Court Martial register shows the offence for which he was tried on the 12th September 1896 and sentenced to 8 days for as “Disobeying a Lawful Command of Superior Officer” and the second Court Martial register for the 22nd September shows the offence as “Striking a Superior Officer” for which he was sentenced to 8 months. These appear to be connected offences as his service record has him awaiting trial on the 4th September. He resumed duty 22nd May 1897.

He left Malta with the battalion for Bermuda on 4th October 1897 where they stayed until 5th December 1899. From there the battalion returned to England for 10 days before going to South Africa until 18th May 1903.  Bagby was discharged from the regiment in 1907.

On Boxing Day 1914, now aged 36, married with 3 children and working as an electricians mate in Birmingham he signed up for the Royal Engineers with the service number 74042 in the signal section. Much of his service record survives in the WO363 “burnt” records. The confirmation of his service with the Worcester Regiment is noted on his Statement As To Disability form confirming his previous regimental number.  He landed in France on 6th October 1915 and transferred to the 4th Army General Headquarters Signal Section. The date is unfortunately burnt from the document but it’s a fare assumption that this transfer occurred around February 1916 with the creation of 4th Army who was with in 1917 when he had further disciplinary issues, the only one legible from the form is 9th January 1917 when he received 3 days field punishment (open arrest) for being absent for 1 hour 35 minutes.

The medals themselves are in good condition with some contact marks, the ribbons are short but appear original. I’ve added photos of selected parts of the service records, if there’s anything in particular you’d like to see or have any other questions, please ask.

The Small Print:

All coins, medals and other items I sell are genuine unless I have explicitly described them as otherwise, I have been selling on eBay for over 20 years and I guarantee this forever.  If I sell you something as genuine that later turns out to be a forgery I will take the item back and refund you in full including all postage costs.  There are a great many groups on social media sites with experienced collectors posting coins that you can look at which will help you learn to grade coins and offer advice on whether a coin is genuine or not. Don’t get caught out by fake coins. Feel free to copy any of my images to post on groups to get opinions on the actual coins I’m selling.

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