PRIVATE W. FLYNN, COLDSTREAM GUARDS, LATER 3RD CANADIAN TUNNELING COMPANY. Queen's South Africa Medal, type 1, wreath points to R of AFRICA, 5 clasps, Belmont, Modder River, Dreifontein, Transvaal, South Africa 1902 (officially impressed: 2301 Pte. W. FLYNN, CLDSTM: GDS:). Faint trace of ghost dates in reverse field, old pawnbroker's mark faintly scratched on rim at 11 o'clock, just before start of naming details, otherwise Extremely Fine.
Medal and clasps confirmed on roll. Not entitled to the King's South Africa Medal. There is no explanation in Flynn's service papers as to the break in his service in South Africa, whether this was due to illness, indiscipline or his being temporarily invalided, though it did result in his not being entitled to the SA01 clasp.
Medal accompanied by 4 pages of photocopied service papers covering Flynn's period of service with the Coldstream Guards. William Flynn was born in Burnley, Lancashire, and enlisted into the Coldstream Guards at Burnley on 4th January 1899. A labourer by trade, he was 21 years of age at the time of enlistment and had previously seen service with the 3rd Battalion East Lancashire Regiment. Flynn transferred to the Army Reserve on 15th October 1902 and was discharged from the army on 3rd January 1911. He saw service at home from 4th January 1899 to 20th October 1899, in South Africa from 21st October 1899 to 1st June 1900, at home from 2nd June 1900 to 15th January 1902 (which would explain the lack of a South Africa 1901 clasp on his medal), in South Africa from 16th January 1902 to 6th October 1902, and at home from 7th October 1902 to 3rd January 1911. On enlistment Flynn gave his next of kin as his father and mother, James and Maria Flynn of 21 Salmon Street, Burnley (medal also accompanied by extracts from Burnley Births Register, which confirms Flynn as having been born in 1877, and extract from the 1881 Census, which gives his age as 3, and the family's then address of 7 Charles Street, Burnley.Photocopy of medal roll, dated 4/10/1901, confirming clasps, accompanies medal. This roll contains a later manuscript note to the effect that replacement duplicate 4 clasp medal was issued to Flynn on 1/10/1918, via the Officer in Charge of Canadian Contingent Records. The medal offered here is undoubtedly Flynn's original medal. By 1918 the Royal Mint supply of type 1 QSA's would have been long gone, with the result that any replacement issued in 1918 with original naming would have been a type 2 example, with the wreath pointing to the letter "F" in the word Africa on the reverse. In addition, the naming on the medal offered here is identical in style to that which I have seen on a number of other type 1 QSA's issued to the Coldstream Guardsmen, whereas any 1918 period replacement medal would have had a later style of naming, similar to one of the styles of naming used on WW1 British War and Victory Medals. Also, if the Royal Mint wanted to avoid having to go through the 48 separate operations required to produce a single impressed medal, and thereby satisfy Flynn's request for a replacement, it probably issued him with a renamed replacement medal, erasing the name from a previously named unissued or returned medal, and re-issuing it with Flynn's name and details. Finally, the fact that this medal has a pawnbroker's mark on its edge gives a clue as to why Flynn would have needed a replacement medal. He obviously pawned his original medal, perhaps to raise funds to emigrate to Canada, and therefore did not redeem the pledge.
Following his discharge in 1911, William Flynn emigrated to Canada, and following the outbreak of the First World War he volunteered for service with the Canadian Army. Medal also accompanied by 16 pages of photocopied service papers from the Canadian Military Archives. At the time of enlistment into the Canadian Army, Flynn was resident at 32 Trinity Square, Toronto. He gave his wife's name as Edna Flynn and his trade as that of bricklayer. Service papers indicate that Flynn first enlisted into the 3rd Battalion Canadian Infantry, the Toronto Regiment, with the rank of private, and was originally scheduled to form part of the first reinforcement draft for that battalion. However, he appears to have been almost immediately transferred to the 35th Battalion and then the 23rd Battalion, Canadian Army, being taken onto the strength of the 23rd Battalion from the 35th Battalion on 20/6/1915. Flynn was promoted Lance Corporal 26/6/1915 and posted to the 23rd Battalion's Regimental Police section on the same day. He embarked for France on 26/7/1915, where he was temporarily transferred back to his original 3rd Battalion, on 31/7/1915. Subsequently, Flynn was attached to the 171st Mining Company (Royal Engineers) from 5/11/1915, and from that unit then attached for service with the Mining Section, 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion (Western Ontario Regiment), on 14/11/1915. Flynn reverted to private at his own request on 27/11/1915, but was struck down with gastro-enteritis shortly afterwards, on 14/12/1915. After recovering, Flynn rejoined the 3rd Battalion on 5/3/1916. He was immediately attached to the 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion's Mining Company, remaining with that unit until 5/3/1916. Two days later, on 7/3/1916, Flynn was struck off the strength of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Battalion and taken on to the strength of the 3rd Canadian Tunnelling Company, joining that unit in the field on 21/3/1916. Flynn then remained with the 3rd Canadian Tunnelling Company for two years, until he was gassed on 24/3/1918 (artillery shell gas), and hospitalised. After discharge from hospital, 18/4/1918, he was reclassified medically as category "B" (no doubt as a result of having been gassed), struck off the strength of the 3rd Canadian Tunnelling Company on 30/4/1918 and transferred to the Canadian Labour Corps. He transferred from the Labour Corps to the 1st Canadian Infantry Works Battalion on 17/5/1918. Hostilities over, Flynn transferred to England on 8/1/1919, where he was posted to the Canadian General Depot at Witley, on 14/1/1919. Flynn embarked at Liverpool for Canada on 13/3/1919, landing at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 22/3/1919. Flynn was discharged medically unfit for further service at Toronto on 7/4/1919.
Although Flynn's pre-war occupation was given as being that of bricklayer when he joined the Canadian Army, when Flynn was undergoing a medically examination prior to his discharge, he gave his trade as that of coal miner, but whether this is a generic trade description based on his wartime experience as a tunneller or relates to his intended post-war employment is not clear from his service papers.
The 3rd Canadian Tunnelling Company was formed in December 1915, when the various mining sections of the 1st and 2nd Canadian Divisions were withdrawn from the front line and brought together at St Marie Cappel, where they were amalgamated to form the 3rd Canadian Tunnelling Company, under Captain A.W. Davis, late of the 177th Tunnelling Company. The 3rd Canadian Tunnelers saw service at various points on the Western Front during WW1, including mining and counter-mining at the Spanbroekmolen Sector, late January - April 1916 (Flynn being involved from late March onwards), where the Company drove a deep tunnel some 790 feet under the German lines (during this period the company was also detached for a short while to carry out the specialist task of opening up and driving down No. 4 Shaft in Trench 135, north of the river Douve). Later the 3rd Canadian Tunnellers saw service aAt Hill 60, August - November 1916, achieving considerable success there, the history of the Royal Engineers "Tunnellers" during WW1 recording that they "acquitted themselves well in abnormal circumstances in placing two large and deep mines far into the enemy's territory, while at the same time warding off his continuous attack in the shallow levels and constructing a deep dug-out system". The 3rd Canadian Tunnellers were serving in the Ypres Salient sector on 24th March 1918, when Flynn was gassed during the German Spring Offensive.
Photocopy of medal roll, dated 4/10/1901, confirming clasps, accompanies medal. This roll contains a later manuscript note to the effect that replacement duplicate 4 clasp medal was issued to Flynn on 1/10/1918, via the Officer in Charge of Canadian Contingent Records. The medal offered here is undoubtedly Flynn's original medal. By 1918 the Royal Mint supply of type 1 QSA's would have been long gone, with the result that any replacement issued in 1918 with original naming would have been a type 2 example, with the wreath pointing to the letter "F" in the word Africa on the reverse. In addition, the naming on the medal offered here is identical in style to that which I have seen on a number of other type 1 QSA's issued to the Coldstream Guardsmen, whereas any 1918 period replacement medal would have had a later style of naming, similar to one of the styles of naming used on WW1 British War and Victory Medals. Also, if the Royal Mint wanted to avoid having to go through the 48 separate operations required to produce a single impressed medal, and thereby satisfy Flynn's request for a replacement, it probably issued him with a renamed replacement medal, erasing the name from a previously named unissued or returned medal, and re-issuing it with Flynn's name and details. Finally, the fact that this medal has a pawnbroker's mark on its edge gives a clue as to why Flynn would have needed a replacement medal. He obviously pawned his original medal, perhaps to raise funds to emigrate to Canada, and therefore did not redeem the pledge.
