A superb and rare Boxer Rebellion and Boer War Transport Medal group awarded to 1st Class Engineer W.J. Barrett, Mercanitle Marine who served aboard the American Ladies Hospital Ship Maine which had been lent to the British Government and fitted out as a Hospital Ship initially for use in South Africa, the costs being met by the American Ladies Hospital Ship Fund under the Chairmanshuip of Lady Randolph Churchill the mother of the future Prime Minister. Barrett saw service aboard during both the Boxer Rebellion in China and the Boer War in South Africa. He would later go on to also see Great War Service with the Mercantile Marine.
Group of 4: Transport Medal 1899-1902, 2 Clasps: China 1900, South Africa 1899-1902; (J. BARRETT.) British War Medal and Mercantile Marine War Medal; (WILLIAM J. BARRETT) official correction to ‘E’ of surname on both medals. Hospital Ship ‘Maine’ white metal commemorative medallion ofr the American Ladies Hospital Ship Fund in its fitted case of issue.
Condition: Nearly Extremely Fine
Along with:
‘United Spanish War Veterans 1898-1902 lapel badge, the reverse stamped ‘U.S.S. Maine’
Board of Trade Continuous Certificate of Discharge x 2
Marine Engineers Association Limited Membership Card
United Grand Lodge Membership Certificate from the Corinthian Lodge, No. 1382, London
Certificate of Competency as a First Class Engineer.
Several letters of recommendation written between 1895 and 1903 including ones written by the Master and Chief Engineer of the Maine.
12 card backed family photographs
Postcard photograph of the Maine in Constantinople in 1887.
Provenance: Ex Jason-Pilalas collection.
William John Barrett was born in London in 1871 and served an apprenticeship with Lester & Perkins Shipwright from January 1888. He would subsequently joined the Atlantic Transport Line in 1893, an American company that operated its ships under the British flag. Barrett subsequently served in the company’s steamers as a Junior Engineer from December 1893 to June 1897, as 5th, 4th and 3rd Engineer and from August 1897 to July 1901, as 2nd Engineer. And it was in the latter rank that he served off South Africa and China in the American Ladies Hospital Ship U.S.S. Maine from September 1899 until January 1903.
RFA Maine was a hospital ship of the British Royal Fleet Auxiliary, which served during the Second Boer War, up until the eve of World War I.
The first ship to bear the name was the former cattle/passenger ship Swansea, built by William Gray & Company of Hartlepool, and launched on 8 June 1887. Owned and operated by Bernard N. Baker's Atlantic Transport Line, Swansea was renamed Maine in 1888.
In October 1899 the Boer War broke out in South Africa and Baker immediately offered the British Admiralty the use of a vessel as a hospital ship. Funding for the conversion was raised by the "American Ladies Hospital Ship Society" based in London and headed by Jennie Churchill, Fanny Ronalds, and Jennie Goodell Blow, the later of whom had come up with the idea. All were American-born socialites, and the effort raised money from Americans. While crewed by a British crew once handed over to the American government, the ship was staffed with American medical workers. The Maine sailed for South Africa on 23 December 1899, with Jennie Churchill aboard, and arrived at Durban on 23 January 1900. One of the earliest beneficiaries was Jennie's younger son Jack, wounded during the Relief of Ladysmith. After only four months, she returned to UK and then went to China for the Boxer Rebellion. The following year she was again back in the UK, and in March 1901 she served in the Mediterranean as hospital ship to the Mediterranean Squadron
At the end of war the ship was donated to the British Government and entered Navy service on 29 June 1901, and became a Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship in 1905 on the formation of the service. In June 1911 she took part in the Coronation Fleet Review for King George V at Torbay. She was lost on 17 June 1914 when she ran aground in fog on the Isle of Mull, Scotland and was wrecked. On 6 July 1914 the wreck was sold for scrap.
