An Excellent
Queen’s South Africa Medal.
An Officer Casualty Medal With Five Clasps
Including
“RHODESIA”

To:
LIEUTENANT DOUGLAS MARRIOTT
50th Company 17th Battalion Imperial Yeomanry.










[THE MEDAL]
Lieut. D. MARRIOTT.
50 Coy. 17/ Imp Yeo.
Officially engraved in upper & lower case oblique running script.

SOUTH AFRICA 1901
(*as usual with this unit, a late issue clasp, and as issued, loose on ribbon)
TRANSVAAL
ORANGE FREE STATE
RHODESIA
CAPE COLONY
(The Five clasps confirmed on roll)

This is an exceptional and never worn medal to a casualty, which having also avoided ever being cleaned (by Mrs Mop’s Duster) for over 120 years has miraculously survived in “Gem Mint State” condition.

Its surfaces are totally untouched and carry a superb deep multi-coloured green-gold-black patination over flashy and proof-like under surfaces.
Also surviving is its original full length Victorian cotton ribbon.
[*Note*]
The “[South Africa 1901]” clasps awarded to the men of this unit were all issued late and well after the initial construction and fitting of the medals, and are always seen either attached with later unofficial riveting, or, as in this case “as issued” and loose on the original ribbon.

[BIOGRAPHY] 1865-1901 (35)
“An Old Boy of Repton School & New College, Oxford”

Douglas Marriott was born on 7th April 1865, the son of Mrs F. Marriott.

He and his family lived at a house named “Oakleigh” in Bowdon, near Timperley in Cheshire. This was and still is an extremely wealthy area.

[REPTON SCHOOL]
He was educated from the age of 13 to 19 at the famous & outstanding Repton School in Derbyshire from January 1878 until July 1884. He played cricket there with the First XI in 1883, and the Second XI in 1884, so it is clear that he came from a financially wealthy & successful family background.

(*Founded in 1557, the boarding fees at Repton are now in excess of £14,500 per term.) Both Jeremy Clarkson & Roald Dahl are old boys.

Douglas matriculated at New College, Oxford in the Michaelmas term of 1885 aged 20 to study history and graduated aged 22 in 1887 with a History degree. He later became a solicitor.

[THE NEW COLLEGE DISCUSSION SOCIETY]
While at Oxford, he evidently joined the “New College Discussion Society” as a photograph of its members from 1886, shown here, is held in New College Archives. It features him as club secretary and can be seen standing in the second row, third from the left.

In his will, he left the then very substantial sum of £400 to Repton School in order to found
“The Douglas Marriott Exhibition”

On Bank of England official inflation figures that £400 in 1901 was the equivalent of
£40,418.85 in 2023 !

[ARMY SERVICE]
Douglas Marriott entered the Hampshire Yeomanry (Carabiniers) as a 2nd Lieutenant in March 1900 at age 34 and upon joining the Imperial Yeomanry was appointed to the 50th Company of the 17th Battalion with the rank of acting Lieutenant from Feb 1901, age 35. He was dead a month later.


He had served in the Army for almost exactly one year.

Lt Douglas Marriott
DIED OF DISEASE
(ENTERIC FEVER / TYPHOID)
Age 35
at Driefontein, on 30th March 1901.

A Greatly Desirable Officer’s D.O.D. Casualty Medal with some excellent research and a rare early (1886) Oxford University photo of the recipient.

This Medal and all those awarded to 17th Yeomanry carry the scarce “RHODESIA” Clasp, and in this case it was awarded to a man who like so very many of his fellow soldiers was lost at an early age to disease before the invention of any antibiotics, in his case to the then normally fatal infection of *Enteric Fever / Typhoid, while fighting in the Boer War.

(*Bacterial Gastroenteritis) typhoid intestinal perforation (TIP), gastrointestinal hemorrhage, which is contracted by consuming contaminated food or water.

[SUMMARY]
There were 22,000 British Deaths during the Boer War, two thirds of which were caused by disease and inadequate medical provisions. The Boer War cost the British Government £211 million which is the equivalent to £35 BILLION today !









”CARPE DIEM”
There is a strange similarity with Douglas Marriott’s story and his college group picture, which very much reminds me of the film “Dead Poets Society” where the late great Robin Williams (as teacher John Keating) lectured his newly arrived students and while doing so referred to a similar photo of a previous group of early college students.

He told his new students that ALL the boys in the early photo were now “fertilising daffodils” .....and advised the new boys to adopt an attitude of...
”CARPE DIEM”
”Seize the Day”....and make your lives extraordinary !

Douglas Marriott, certainly did that,
and via the appearance of his medal, the world will now remember him.

A Totally Superb, Orignal & Classic Officer’s Medal to a man with an interesting back story.

A Rare & Historically Important Example in “gem as struck” specimen condition to a casualty officer with a Rhodesia clasp.

£1250