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Auction: 14001 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals and Militaria
Lot: 187

An Interesting Boer War Pair to Major H.P. Young, Indian Staff Corps, Late Poona Horse, 'Head of Intelligence' at Delagoa Bay, Portuguese East Africa, When Winston Churchill Made His Escape From Pretoria
Queen's South Africa 1899-1902, three clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal (Major H.P. Young, Staff); King's South Africa 1901-02, two clasps (Maj. H.P. Young. I.S.C.), edge bruise to latter, minor contact marks, good very fine (2)

Major Henry Pottinger Young, (1850-1929), the son of Major Charles Colville Young, C.B., Royal Horse Artillery; educated at Wellington College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst; Commissioned Ensign, 49th Foot, February 1869; promoted Lieutenant, Indian Staff Corps, March 1871; Captain, February 1881; Major, February 1889; 'served with the Imperial Forces, and was attached later to the Poona Horse and Bombay Cavalry. Whilst in India he commanded a party in the long distance trial rides of 1887, and rode 184 miles in 60 hours with one horse. He rendered distinguished service in the Afghan and South African wars, being wounded several times. On one occasion his horse was shot under him. He was thanked in despatches by Lord Methuen for a most courageous attempt to blow up a bridge and train. From 1899 to 1900 he was head of the Intelligence Service at Lourenco Marques, Portuguese East Africa, and was thanked by the authorities for good work there' (Recipient's obituary in the Albany Advertiser refers); served as Head of Intelligence in Portuguese East Africa during the period in which Winston Churchill and Aylmer Haldane made their successful escapes by rail from Pretoria; at the time his main task in Portuguese East Africa was to monitor and disrupt the flow of foreign munitions being landed at Delagoa Bay and then railed through to the Northern Transvaal; after the South African War migrated to Albany, Western Australia.

Provenance: Lovell Collection, 1982


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Sold for
£600