| No. 1053 Trumpeter H. H. Sawyer of the Honorable Artillery Company/City of London Imperial Volunteers as identified by a pen inscription on the reverse of the photograph. It also states that the photo was taken "after enlisting to go to the Boer War." Further research seems to indicate that this is actually H.H. Sawyer, Trumpeter to "B" Battery of the Honorable Artillery Company who served with the detachment of that artillery unit that deployed to South Africa during the Anglo-Boer War as part of the City of London Imperial Volunteers. The H.A.C. sent some 193 men to South Africa with the City Imperial Volunteers. These men served in Yeomany, mounted infantry, infantry as well as artillery capacities. Sawyer served with the Field Battery (H.A.C.) of the City Imperial Volunteers during his tenure in South Africa. He was entitled to the Queen's South Africa Medal with clasps "Cape Colony", "Orange Free State" and "Transvaal" Henry Hollington Sawyer was born in 1880 in London being the son of William Sawyer and Mary Ann Hollington. Sometime after the end of the Anglo-Boer War Sawyer moved to India where he remained for many years - at least until after the end of World War One. He served with the Karachi Artillery Volunteers eventually attaining the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Indian Volunteer Forces. He remained in India During World War One and was attached to 2nd Brigade, Mobile Artillery. He was awarded the British War and Victory Medal. Additionally he received the 1911 Delhi Durbar Medal and the Indian Volunteer Forces Medal. Sawyer married in 1908 and his wife Gertrude would bear several children. One son Cecil would be killed in his Spitfire as the result of a flying accident during the Battle of Britain. Another son Francis died sometime during the so-called Mau Mau uprising in British East Africa. Cabinet Photograph Arthur Weston - Photographer 52 & 53 New Gate Street, London, E.C., England c. 1900 |
