THE VICTORIA CROSS AND CAMPAIGN MEDALS AWARDED TO SERGEANT JOHN CLEMENTS, DAMANT'S HORSE, SOUTH AFRICAN FORCES, HAS BEEN SOLD AT AUCTION BY SPINK OF LONDON. |
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21 October 1999 |
The Victoria Cross and campaign medals awarded to Sergeant John Clements, Damant's Horse, South African Forces, has been sold at auction by Spink of London. The VC group realised a hammer price of £65,000, and was purchased by the Michael Ashcroft Trust the holding institution for the Lord Ashcroft VC Collection. The John Clements VC medal group is on display in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery in the Imperial War Museum, London.
For the award of the Victoria Cross [ London Gazette, 4 June 1901 ], Strijdenburg, 2nd Boer War, South Africa, 24 February 1900, Corporal John Clements, Damant's Horse ( Rimington's Guides ), South African Forces.
On the 24th February 1900, near Strijdenburg, when dangerously wounded through the lungs and called upon to surrender, Corporal Clements threw himself into the midst of a party of five Boers, shooting three of them with his revolver, and thereby causing the whole party to surrender to himself and two unwounded men of Rimington’s Guides.
John Clements was invested with his Victoria Cross by the Prince of Wales ( the future King George V ) on Horse Guards Parade, London, on the 1st July 1902.
John Clements served in Botha's Scouts in the German South West Africa campaign during the First World War. He died on his farm near Newcastle, Natal, on the 18th June 1937, and was buried in the city's Town Cemetery. |
Iain Stewart, 21 October 1999