THE BOER WAR PAIR TO PRIVATE W.C.S. KHAN, A RECRUIT OF INDIAN ANCESTRY, WHO SAW SERVICE WITH THE BRITISH ARMY'S MEDICAL STAFF CORPS PRIOR TO THE BOER WAR AND WITH THE ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS DURING THE BOER WAR, SEEING SERVICE IN SOUTH AFRICA WITH NO. 9 BEARER COMPANY, 4TH INFANTRY BRIGADE.
Two: Queen's South Africa Medal, 5 clasps, Cape Colony, Tugela Heights, Relief of Ladysmith, Transvaal, Laing's Nek (officially named, impressed in plain block capitals: 9154 W.C.S. KHAN,); King's South Africa Medal, 2 clasps, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (officially named, impressed in plain block cpaitals: 9154 W.C.S. KHAN.). Rank and unit unofficially erased from both medals (presumably by the recipient, unhappy with the rank and unit originally impressed on his medals). Scattered surface contact marks, rim nicks and edge bruises, otherwise Very Fine and an interesting group to a British Army soldier of Indian ancestry.
Group accompanied by biographical details, 4 pages of copied service papers, copied QSA and KSA Medal rolls (2) confirming medals and clasps, and extracts 1871 and 1911 census returns.
William Charles Sultan Khan was born in April 1870 in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, the son of Muhamed Khan (born 1839) and Emma Khan (1836-1901). He enlisted into the Medical Staff Corps on 11/3/1891 as a 3rd class Orderly, At the time of enlistment Khan was 20 years and 10 months old, confirmed that he was born in Aylesbury and gave his trade as clerk. Khan was promoted 2nd class Orderly, 11/3/1893, 1st class Orderly, 22/6/1893, and transferred to the Army Reserve with the rank of Private on 1/3/1894. Following the outbreak of the Boer War Khan was recalled to active service with the Royal Army Medical Corps with the rank of Private and appointed 1st Class Orderly, 9/10/1899. Khan was discharged from the army with the rank of 1st Class Orderly 10/3/1903. Service papers confirm that in addition to service at home, Khan also saw service in South Africa from 4/11/1899 to 9/8/1902.
QSA Medal roll confirms service in South Africa with the 9th Bearer Company, 4th Infantry Brigade.
Khan is recorded in the 1871 census as an 11 month old child resident in Aylesbury with his 59 year old grandmother, Elizabeth Hedges, her four daughters and a servant, and in the 1911 census as a 40 year old flat attendant resident in Crescent Mansions, Fulham Road, Chelsea, London, with his 29 year old wife.
Khan married, 1902, at the Church of St Olave, Bermondsey, London, Mary Ann Daisy Louise Villars.
Khan was the son of Muhamed Said Khan, born India circa 1839, and the grandson of Mahomed Sage Khan (born India, date unknown).
Khan's mother, Emma Cooper Hedges, was born in Aston Abbots, Buckinghamshire, in 1836. She married Muhamed Said Khan at St Clements Church, Paddington, in 1869 and died during the Boer War in 1901.
