Queen's South Africa Medal 1899-1902

Obverse: Bust of Queen Victoria, crowned and veiled, with order (left) Legend: 'VICTORIA REGINA ET IMPERATRIX'. Reverse: Britannia standing wearing a helmet (right), a flag in her left hand, holding out a wreath in her right hand towards troops on the march, ships in distance. Legend: 'SOUTH AFRICA. Inscription on edge: '187651 Or.J Fegan, H:M:S:Terrible'. Bars 'TUGELA HEIGHTS'. 'RELIEF OF LADYSMITH'. Fitted with a bar and orange ribbon edged with red, with two narrow blue stripes.

James Fegan (1880-1963) was born in Downpatrick, County Down. He entered the Royal Navy as a boy 2nd class on 17 February 1896 training in the ships ‘Impregnable’ and ‘Boscawen’. In 1898, now in the new battleship ‘Majestic’, he was rated Ordinary Seaman and signed on for 12 years’ service. He briefly served in HMS ‘Trafalgar’ the following year in the Mediterranean before transferring to HMS ‘Terrible’ on 5 September 1899. Captain Percy Scott took command on 18th September and while taking the ship out to the China station, arrived at Simonstown at the beginning of the Boer War. The British Army at Ladysmith, Mafeking and Kimberly only had field guns with which to resist the longer-range guns of the Boers. Captain Percy Scott mounted some of ‘Terrible’s’ guns on improvised carriages and members of his crew under Captain Lambton transported them to Ladysmith before the town came under siege. A military relief column eventually sent to relieve the town, included a naval brigade with men from ‘Terrible’ and ‘Forte’. A series of actions at Tugela Heights used three 4.7 inch guns mounted on railway trolleys also from ‘Terrible’. This battle ultimately ended the siege. Fegan was rated leading seaman on 18 March 1900. ‘Terrible’ left for China shortly afterwards where her crew and guns played an active role in suppressing the Boxer rebellion. From 1907 Fegan served on the new dreadnought battleship ‘King Edward VII’ and was rated Leading Seaman in 1905. He transferred to the Royal Fleet Reserve on 3 April 1910 and rejoined the Royal Navy in August 1914. He was on ‘Irresistible’ when she was sunk by a mine during the Dardanelles campaign. During the latter part of the First World War, he served in ‘Wanderer’, minesweeping and with the North Sea Patrol. He was demobilized in 1919 and received the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal, none of which are in the Museum’s collections
He married Rosina Mary Stride in 1912 and settled in Southampton. On 28 May 1918, he was tried in South Shields for bigamy with Rose Ellen Field and sentenced to ten months’ imprisonment. The navy took no action other than temporarily stopping his pay. The legitimate marriage to Rosina survived. The couple had five children – Leslie James, Lily, Violet May, John and Rosina. Leslie would also serve in the Royal Navy. James Fegan worked as a stevedore after the war and died in Hampshire in 1963.