VICTORIAN D.S.O. GROUP OF 4 MEDALS & MINIATURE PORTRAIT TO CAPT. F.R. EWART, L'POOL R.

Distinguished Service Order Gazetted 19 Apr 1901:

“In recognition of the services of the under mentioned Officers in connection with the Campaign in South Africa 1899-1900, dated 29th November 1900.”

Royal Humane Society Bronze Medal (Successful) Jan 1906:

“On the 29th January, 1906, a native boy fell into a lagoon at Lagos, there being a depth of 7 feet. Captain F.R. Ewart, King's Liverpool Regiment, serving with the Lagos Battalion, W.A.F.F., went in, fully clothed, and rescued him.”

Captain Frank Rowland Ewart was born in Jan 1874 and educated at Clifton and the R.M.C. prior to being commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Liverpool Regiment in March 1894.

Advanced to Lieutenant in July 1898, he served in Halifax, Nova Scotia and in the West Indies, before embarking for South Africa in late 1897.

Subsequently present in operations with the 1st Battalion in Natal, including the actions at Rietfontein and Lombard's Kop, in addition to the siege of Ladysmith, Ewart was afterwards attached to the Mounted Infantry and served in numerous operations in the Transvaal, Cape Colony and the Orange River Colony, including the actions at Belfast, Klerksdorp and Vryburg. Advanced to Captain in March 1901, he was twice Mentioned in Despatches, awarded the D.S.O., the Queen's Medal with five clasps and the King's Medal with two clasps.

Ewart's D.S.O. more than likely reflected his conduct at two busy engagements in August 1900. The most memorable of these was that fought near Van Wyck's Vlei on 21 Aug 1900, on which occasion Corporal H.J. Knight, also of the Mounted Infantry, won the Victoria Cross. The London Gazette reports:

“On 21 August 1900, during operations near Van Wyck's Vlei, Corporal Knight and four men were occupying a position behind some rocks, to cover the rear of a detachment of their Company, which, under Captain Ewart, D.S.O., was holding the right of the line. Being attacked on the right by about 50 Boers, Knight's little band of four men were almost surrounded at very close quarters by the enemy. Ordering them to retire one by one to a more sheltered position, he stayed at his post for nearly an hour, covering Captain Ewart's force, during which two of his men were shot. Placing one of them in a secure place he left him there, carrying the other for two miles on his back, the whole time being under a very hot fire from the enemy”.

The second action, fought on 28 Aug 1900, near Machadodorp, resulted in the Boers being driven from a ridge between their positions and the town, Ewart being slightly wounded in the process.

During the course of 1903 he was seconded for duty under the Colonial Office and appointed to the Lagos Battalion of the West African Frontier Force. It was while employed in this capacity that Ewart won his R.H.S. Medal, on 29.1.1906, when he rescued a native boy from a lagoon at Lagos.

Tragically, by the time the R.H.S. Committee had approved his award, the gallant Captain was dead, having succumbed to 'suppurative colitis' on 13.6.1906, while en-route to England. He was buried at sea.