Description
British South Africa Company, reverse Rhodesia 1896, bar Mashonaland 1897, 63 Trooper William Henry Paget, British South Africa Police.
Officially engraved: “63 Troopr W.H. Paget B.S.A.P.”
Confirmed on the medal roll, an interesting addition being that Number 62 was Thomas Paget, who earned an identical medal, looks to be his relative who signed up at the same time. (A Thomas Paget born during 1852 and died in South Africa during 1916, might be his father)
William Henry Paget, was born in England circa 1874.
Having returned to civilian life, working as a Grocer in Port Elizabeth he died of Enteric (Typhoid) Fever on 10th March 1899 at the Provincial Hospital in Port Elizabeth. He was 25 years old.
Trooper Paget was an early member of the British South Africa Police, raised earlier in 1889 by Cecil Rhodes to be the Police Force of Rhodesia under control of the British South Africa Company.
He would earn this medal and the additional clasp for service in the Second Matabele War aka the “First Chimurenga”, between March 1896 and October 1897.
