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Auction: 23003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 24

South Africa 1834-53 (Wm R. Alderdice, 91st Regt), minor contact marks, edge bruising, overall very fine

Provenance:
The catalogue of the collection of Reverend Ralph Fitzpatrick (Los Angeles).

William R. Alderdice was born at Irvine, Ayr, Scotland around 1814 and worked as a Tailor prior to enlisting with the 91st Regiment on 23 November 1832 at Kilmarnock. Based initially in Ireland they were later ordered to embark for St. Helena in November 1835. Garrison duty here was extremely dull and Alderdice had already twice been charged with drunkenness while in Ireland, he added to it here with a charge of being 'Absent all night'.

Three companies of the Regiment were ordered to embark for Cape Colony on 2 June 1839, arriving on 28 June the weather proved so poor that they were unable to disembark until 3 July. The unit was then split into detachments to serve in the varius outposts and forts around the colony. During this time Alderdice was eight times charged with various offences, mainly drunkeness.

The 91st Regiment were heavily involved in the Xhosa Wars while in South Africa, with a detachment engaging a force if Xhosa warriors in June 1843. They were posted to Grahamstown on 30 June 1845 with the intention of being returned to England however the outbreak of war with the Xhosa War in 1846 ended that. This conflict, known as the 'War of the Axe' was to rage for several years. With at least one major attack on the 91st Regiment's post at Fort Beaufort. A witness of described the Regiments performance during the war, stating:

'They [the 91st] could march from sunrise to sunset, and though without food and other refreshment during all that time, not a man ever fell out of the ranks, so great was there [SIC] staying power and endurance.'

Throughout the war Alderdice was again repeatedly found himself on charges of drunkeness. When the conflict ended in January 1848 the 91st Regiment was again ordered to Grahamstown and from there to Britain by May 1848. Over the next five years Alderdice was convicted twenty more times of various offences, eventually being so unwell that he was posted as a Regimental Tailor as an easier duty. In the end he was invalided on 3 June 1854, with the medical report stating:

'Alderdice was invalided from chronic Rheumatism and General Debility probably the result of exposure to the cold and damp owing to long service principally in the Kaffir War of 1846-7.'

He returned to Ayrshire where he worked as a tailor and lived at 7 Union Street, Kilmarnock; sold together with copied discharge papers and census data.

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Sold for
£350

Starting price
£240