BOER WAR HERO'S ALBERT MEDAL UP FOR SALE

It took ten years but Winston Churchill kept his promise to the train driver who helped him save dozens of British troops during the Boer War.

The future prime minister was a 25-year-old war correspondent in South Africa when the armoured train he was travelling on was derailed near Durban by enemy mortar shells in December 1899.

Undeterred by Boer sharpshooters Churchill ran to the locomotive and found the driver, Charles Wagner, and the badly injured fireman, Alexander Stewart, by the side of the track. For nearly an hour they kept the engine running, shunting the three wrecked carriages out of the way so the train could make its escape.

A decade later Churchill had risen to become home secretary but he never forgot his pledge to the stricken men that a “wounded man who continued to do his duty was always rewarded for distinguished gallantry”, and arranged for them both to get the Albert Medal for Lifesaving.

The medal awarded to Wagner is expected to sell for more than £20,000 at an auction in London next month.

David adds:

To read the complete article, see:
Medal given to Churchill’s Boer War hero up for sale (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/medal-given-to-churchill-s-boer-war-hero-up-for-sale-29m8qg7nv)

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