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Auction: 7012 - Orders, Decorations, Medals & Militaria
Lot: 1052

A Boer War Medal to Lieutenant W.L.B. Hill, Gloucestershire Regiment, Who Was Made Prisoner of War at Farquhar´s Farm, 1899, and Was Imprisoned at the Officers´ Camp at Pretoria Along With Winston Churchill Queen´s South Africa 1899-1902, three clasps, Natal, Orange Free State, Transvaal (Lieut. & Adjt. W.L.B. Hill. Glouc. Rgt.), nearly extremely fine, with photographs including a portrait photograph of recipient Estimate £ 280-320 Lieutenant William Leonard Bertram Hill (1871-1944); educated at Cheltenham College, 1884-87; rescued a boy from drowning in the lock at East Farleigh, 19.7.1891; served in the 3rd Gloucestershire Militia prior to his commission as Second Lieutenant Gloucestershire Regiment, 1893; his father was C.O. of the 3rd Battalion; Lieutenant 1898; Lieutenant and Adjutant 1898-1901; served in Boer War, 1899-1900, including in action at Rietfontein and Lombards Kop and was taken Prisoner of War at Farquhar´s Farm, 30.10.1899, where the Gloucesters lost their C.O. and approximately 325 P.O.W.´s were taken; he was imprisoned at the Officer´s Camp at Pretoria at the same time as Winston Churchill and chronicles his time there and attempts at escape, including tunnelling, in three letters to his father, written shortly after his release when Pretoria fell to the British, ´I should like to add a little about Churchill´s escape. It was quite easy, simply a matter of climbing on to the top of a urinal like anyone you see in the streets, those green things you know, and dropping the other side. There were many of us preparing to do the same thing but were waiting because we had not got the necessaries of life and were collecting them. What so annoyed everyone there was, that for his own aggrandizement and for copy, he should give away his means of escape directly he was clear, and so spoil everyone´s chances of using the same method, chiefly about the railway I mean. The Boers would have never found out but for him. It was not playing the game and he is cordially loathed in consequence´ (copy of letter included in the lot refers). After being discharged Hill travelled to the U.S.A. and settled there before returning to England to serve as a Captain 1st Garrison Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment for the duration of the Great War (entitled to a British War Medal). He returned to the U.S.A. after the War, and remained there until his death.

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£460