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: 'A. SMITH S.S.A. H.M.S. THETIS'. Ribbon missing.

Alfred Smith (born 1880) was born in Ryde, Isle of Wight the son of John Smith, a coastguard originally from Dublin. He joined the Royal Navy from Greenwich Hospital School on 24 February 1898 - his eighteenth birthday. He was initially rated Ship’s Steward’s Boy. His sea service started in the newly-completed battleship HMS ‘Repulse’. On 26 June 1897 she took part in the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee review at Spithead. Smith moved to 2nd class protected cruiser ‘Thetis’ on 15 February 1898. He was promoted to Ship’s Steward’s Assistant on 24 February 1898. Smith spent a short period on HMS ‘Anson’ before rejoining ‘Thetis’. In November 1899 she was detached from the Mediterranean Squadron and sent to Durban, South Africa at the start of the Second Boer War. She was involved in the conflict until the end of 1900, landing guns to protect the port and later, blockading Delagoa Bay in Portuguese East Africa. The ship also delivered welfare parcels for British prisoners held at Pretoria via the US Consul. Smith left the ship on 8 June 1900 and returned to Chatham. His conduct, previously described as ‘very good’, steadily deteriorated from this point. In 1901 he was in ‘Hazard’, recently converted into the first submarine depot ship. His last ship was HMS ‘Minerva’ and he left the Navy in March 1903 and cannot be traced thereafter in civilian records.