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 (R), 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 (incuse): '9140 PTE A.CLEMENTS, R.M. H.M.S.MONARCH'. Bars: 'CAPE COLONY', 'PAARDEBERG', 'DRIEFONTEIN', 'JOHANNESBURG', 'DIAMOND HILL', 'BELFAST'. Fitted by a straight clasp from an orange ribbon edge with red, with two narrow blue stripes.

Arthur Clements (1877-1935) was born in Gorton, Manchester, the son of Joseph, a railway worker. His father died in 1883 and in 1897 Arthur joined the Royal Marines. He embarked in HMS ‘Monarch’ on 4 November 1899 after the outbreak of war in South Africa and landed there on the 29th. Naval brigades comprising seaman and marines, mainly from ‘Doris’. ‘Monarch’ and ‘Powerful’, played an active role in the actions commemorated by the bars on Clements’s campaign medal. Paarderberg saw British forces attacking a Boer convoy dug in on the banks of the Modder River. The marines, under the command of Major George Brabazon Urmston RM of the ‘Powerful’, guarded the heavy naval guns of the brigade. After this position was taken, unhealthy conditions led to an outbreak of enteric fever and dysentery among the Brigade. Driefontein was a further assault on a Boer line covering the approach to Bloemfontein. Following the retreat of the Boers, the Naval Brigade arrived in Bloemfontein after the army, their numbers depleted by battle casualties and sickness. The marines now took charge of the fourth 4.7 inch gun placed at Naval Hill near the town. The brigade was subsequently split. The main body with two 4.7 inch guns and four 12 pounders, went north under the command of Lord Roberts. Following the fall of Pretoria, the battle of Belfast at Bergendal began on 26 August 1900. It succeeded in overcoming a Boer line under Botha, protecting the railway to the last seat of Republic of South Africa government at Machadodorp. During this engagement the Marines again manned one of the 4.7 inch guns. The Naval Brigade was reunited and returned to Simon’s Town on October 12th 1900. Clements departed for Portsmouth in the SS ’Lake Erie’ on the 15th October.
The rest of his career was less eventful. He served in ’Leviathan’ on the North America and West Indies station from her completion until December 1905 when the ship was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet. Throughout World War 1, Clements was in the monitor HMS ‘Havelock’ during her time as a guard ship at Lowestoft. In July 1919, Clements was demobilized and joined the Royal Fleet Reserve.
By 1921 he had returned to Manchester and was working as a temporary sorting clerk for the General Post Office. He died unmarried, near his birthplace in Manchester