Description
A Queen’s South Africa Medal to A Fatal casualty of the Sinking of the R.M.S. Leinster awarded to Serjeant Arthur William Pankhurst, 7th Company 4th Battalion Imperial Yeomanry, Leicestershire Company, and Shropshire Yeomanry, comprising, Queen’s South Africa Medal, 3rd type reverse, three clasps Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, (22579 Sgt A. W. Pankhurst. 7th Coy Imp: Yeo:), very fine
Arthur William Pankhurst attested for the Imperial Yeomanry at Strood in Kent on the 30th of January 1901 he stated he was 23 years old and a Warder. He was posted to the 7th Company, 4th Battalion Imperial Yeomanry. He was promoted to Corporal. 1st of April 1901 and Sergeant on the 29th of September 1901.He was Discharged as a Sergeant on the 18th of August 1902. On his return to England, he married Rose Donovan in Strood in the summer of 1902In the 1911 census Arthur was a Butler they then moved to Wellington Shropshire. When the War started in 1914 Arthur volunteered for military service and though aged 36 was accepted into the Shropshire yeomanry as 160050 Serjeant. He was initially posted to Northumberland until early 1918 when the unit was sent to the Hare Camp in the Curragh, just outside Dublin. Arthur was returning to England on leave on the R.M.S. Leinster. On the 10th of October 1918, at a little before nine o’clock in the morning, the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company-owned mailboat – the R.M.S. Leinster – left Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire) en route for Holyhead. Three members of the Royal Navy manned 12-pound guns on board as a precaution. Including these three men, there totalled 771 on board. Of these, 489 were military and 180 were civilian passengers. 22 Dublin Post Office workers and 77 crew accounted for the rest.
An hour into her journey, a torpedo was launched by U-boat UB-123, which just missed the Leinster. A second torpedo struck the Leinster in the area of the sorting room, and just one of the 22 workers inside would survive. Captain William Birch – Irish but living in Holyhead in a property named ‘The Sycamores’ – gave the order to turn the ship and attempt to get back to Kingstown harbour. The third torpedo struck amidships in the engine room, causing devastating damage, and the ship began to sink. Survivors found themselves struggling in rough seas, and by the time rescue boats arrived 501 would have perished.
This was the largest maritime disaster ever witnessed on the Irish Sea. Arthur did not survive the sinking, but his body was recovered on the coast of Scotland. He now lies in a Special Plot owned by Kirkcudbright Town Council in Kirkcudbright (St Cuthbert) Old Churchyard extension containing the bodies of 5 victims of the M.S. Leinster Disaster.
The Queen’s South Africa Medal his only entitlement. Sold with copy service papers, Commonwealth War Graves Commission Details and extract from The RMS Leinster Individuals Records
