W Woolmore Collection of Anglo Boer War Medals - Aust

Lot 3257    SESSION 12 (11.30AM THURSDAY 1ST AUGUST)    W Woolmore Collection of Anglo Boer War Medals - Aust.

Estimate $6,500
Bid at live.noble.com.au
SOLD $3,800

PAIR TO WIA AT WILMANSRUST: Queen's South Africa Medal 1899, (type 2 reverse with faint ghost dates), - five clasps - Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, Belfast, with unofficial MID emblem; King's South Africa Medal 1902, - two clasps - South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902. 196 Pte P.J.Dallimore, Victoria M.R. on first medal, Captain P.J.Dallimore. Victorian M.R. on second medal. Both medals impressed. Display mounted, nicely toned, nearly extremely fine.

Together with Victorian Militia Artillery pill box cap badge in brass (32mm) (Grebert p172); blackened bronze officer's pips (3).

MID: LG 16/4/1901, p2608 to No.196 Sergeant P.J.Dallimore, Victorian Mounted Rifles.

Peter James Dallimore of Warrnambool, Vic; enlisted in 2 Vic MR as a trooper; to Sgt 25Aug1900; RTA and volunteered for 5th Contingent with rank of Lieutenant; severely wounded at the Wilmansrust disaster in eastern Transvaal 12Jun1901, when Boers made a night attack on the 5 Vic MR and during the fight Lt Dallimore was wounded twice, once with a bullet wound to the head and then with a bullet in the hip, 19 other members of his unit were killed; hospitalised at Middleburg; finished his second tour as a Captain.

In a letter home to his family written at Middleburg Hospital, Lieut P.J.Dallimore wrote, 'Since I last wrote you a terrible disaster has happened to the 2nd Battalion. We were completely surprised by night, losing in all, killed and wounded, 62. I received two bullet wounds, one in my head and one through my hip. They are both clean wounds, and the doctors tell me they are not very dangerous. I shall never forget that night. It was something awful - one continued blast of rifles, just as if packets of crackers were put into the fire; and the yells of the Boers singing out "Hands up, you----! Hands up!" There were about 600 of them altogether. I was nearly asleep when I heard the first volley. I got up as quickly as possible, got hold of my rifle, and ran out, and got hit in the head. This threw me down, and for a minute or two I knew no more. However, I soon recovered, and immediately grabbed my rifle again, and had just shoved a cartridge into the breach when I got hit again on the hip. By this time the Boers were well around me. They collared my rifle and bandolier, and that finished me. I shall tell you all about it when I get a bit better. At present I am getting the best of attention, a room to myself, an orderly, and a nurse to look after me."

On another occasion, an article in May 1901 was written in the London Daily Mail by Edgar Wallace in which he states, 'Two weeks ago - the day before De Wet crossed the Orange River on his return home - Captain Dallimore, of the Victorian Imperial Regiment, while scouting with a patrol of 15 men, got on the track of a party of Boers twice as strong numerically as his own small party. With that skill which only the Australians seem to possess, he followed the enemy without letting his own party expose themselves, and night found him with his little band posted along a ridge overlooking the Boer camp, which was in the angle of the Sea Cow and Orange Rivers. All night long in the drizzling rain the Victorians waited, and at last dawn broke, and showed the sleeping forms of the enemy, slumbering quite oblivious of the presence of our men. Had he been so willed, Captain Dallimore might have shot every sleeper as he lay, but he did a thing for which every man with the instincts of an Englishman will praise him - he ordered a volley to be fired over their heads, so that they might wake and have a fight for their lives. That was mercy - and, good sportsmen, it was "the game".'

With a massive amount of research, much of it into the Dallimore family history, and also some photos.