A Queen's South Africa Medal to Lieutenant Francis Sandham Geary, Hampshire Regiment (Mounted

A Queen's South Africa Medal to Lieutenant Francis Sandham Geary, Hampshire Regiment (Mounted Infantry), who was killed in action East of Bloemfontein in April 1900: 1st type (b), 3 clasps: Relief of Kimberly, Paadeberg, Driefontein (Lieut. F. S. GEARY. 2/Hamps. Rgt.), engraved, extremely fine and toned with ghost dates.

This officer was killed in action at Sannah' s Post, near Thaba N'chu in the Orange Free State, 27th April 1900. The second son of Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Le Guay Geary, K.C.B., he was born in February 1874 and educated at the United Services College, Westward Ho, and at the Royal Military Academy. He was commissioned into the Hampshire Regiment in October 1894 and promoted Lieutenant in August 1897. The 2nd Battalion Hampshire Regiment did not form part of the original Army Corps sent to South Africa in 1899 because it had insufficient men to make it up to war establishment. It did, however, contribute 35 men to the Mounted Infantry, under the charge of Lt. Geary, who therefore proceeded to South Africa in advance of his Regiment (in October 1899) and saw considerable action there. It was during an ambush against a British cavalry brigade that he was "killed in a gallant stand against overwhelming odds."