Description
Cape of Good Hope General Service Medal, bar Bechuanaland, Corporal J.P. Whiteside, 1st City Volunteers.
Officially impressed in upside down “Cape Style” which was done by Sceales and Armstrong in Cape Town circa 1905-7:
“Corpl J. P. Whiteside 1st City Vols.”
John Priestley Whiteside was born on 12th June 1873 in Manchester, Lancashire. Baptised in Longsight on 25th August 1873.
He grew up around Lancashire in Rusholme and later Rawtenstall by 1891 where he worked as a Draper’s Apprentice.
A few years later he appears to have ventured to South Africa and took part in the Bechuanaland Campaign of 1897 as a Corporal of the 1st City Volunteers.
The 1st City Volunteers was also known as the First City Mounted Volunteers or 1st City Grahamstown Volunteers.
In 1902 he had temporarily returned to England and married in Fleet, Hampshire.
He later died at the age of 71 his occupation listed as “General Dealer” in Main Street, Kokstad, Mount Currie, South Africa on 18th September 1944.
