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Auction: 1006 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals & Militaria
Lot: 299

The Rare South African Campaign Medal to Sub-Lieutenant T.L.G. Griffith, 2nd Battalion, 24th Foot, Aged Just 21, He was the Youngest of the Battalion´s Five Officers Killed at the Battle of Isandhlwana, 22.1.1879 South Africa 1877-79, one clasp, 1877-8-9 (Sub-Lieut. T. L. Griffiths [sic], 2/24th Foot) virtually mint state Estimate £ 24,000-28,000 Sub-Lieutenant Thomas Llewelyn George Griffith, born Chadlington, Oxfordshire, 8.10.1857, eldest son of the Reverend Thomas Llewelyn Griffith, M.A., of Pen-yNant, near Ruabon, North Wales, and Rector OD Deal, Kent, and Mary Moncrieff, his wife, daughter of Brevet Major George St Vincent Whitmore, Royal Engineers; educated at Marlborough College and at the Priory at Croydon, passing his Army examination as well as those at Sandhurst and Edinburgh, where for a period he was attached to the 78th Highlanders; gazetted as a Sub-Lieutenant into the 2nd Battalion, 24th Foot, 14.8.1877, his commission being antedated to 11.11.1876; joined the battalion at Chatham in October 1877, and on 1.2.1878 embarked with the regiment for the Cape of Good Hope; upon arrival he served with the regiment through the whole of its´ subsequent operations ´and in the suppression of the outbreak in Kaffaria, seeing much service, and repeatedly winning the praise and commendation of his superior officers´ (The South African Campaign of 1879, J.P. Mackinnon and S.H. Shadbolt refers); advanced into Zululand as part of Colonel Glyn´s Column and was present at the storming of Sirayo´s stronghold in the Bashee Valley, afterwards proceeding to Isandhlwana; on the morning of 22nd January 1879, Griffith left Isandhlwana with the main body of the column under Lord Chelmsford, but subsequently rode back on special service with Major Smith, Captain Gardner and Lieutenant Dyer, to convey the General´s orders to advance the camp, ´Arriving at the very crisis of the tragedy which was being enacted, Lieutenant Griffith joined his company, and fell in the discharge of his duty. Colonel Black, visiting the battlefield five months afterwards, for the purpose of burying the dead, found the bodies of some sixty officers and men lying in a group, giving evidence of their having gathered together and fought desperately to the last. Among them were the remains of Captain Wardell, Lieutenant Dyer and a captain and subaltern of the 2-24th, the latter, it is believed, being the mortal part of young Griffith.´ (Ibid) Provenance: Dr. S.Z. Ross Collection Norman Holme Collection Spink March 1995

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£24,000