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QSA with clasps for CC, Rhodesia, OFS and Transvaal is engraved in large block letters in the style referred to in “Australians Awarded: 2nd Edition as being unique to South Australians. The medal is named “LIET H.C.COGGINS NSW 3RD :IB”.

KSA impressed LIEUT: H C COGGINS NSW IB. There were 640 KSAs to Australians, 207 to the 3rd NSW IB.

One of the aspects of our hobby is that knowledge is ever expanding with the issue of new medals and changing criteria but also what we thought we knew isn’t always correct. I know over the years I have discovered a few things which are now accepted as fact when it comes to medals and certainly in the early days of my collecting 40 years ago there was no internet and no easy way to share information – just books and old collectors.

Some medals will start out being castigated as wrong, fake, fraudulent etc. Chards VC is a good case in point. It was such an awful medal that it was written off as a fake when bought by the actor Stanley Baker together with Chards South Africa Medal. It was only later that it was realised that it was genuine – at the same time we became aware that each VC has a small mark made by Hancocks which identifies it

My story is of a pair of medals, and what I hope is their redemption. The pair is somewhat well known, having been offered several times in recent years by Nobles – namely the QSA and KSA pair to Lieutenant H C Coggins of the New South Wales Imperial Bushmen. Over the years I became very familiar with the engraving on early NZ QSA Contingents and also was able to identify the actual engravers for the colonial issues of the NZ War Medal so whilst the engraving on the QSA was not the standard sloping letters one would expect for an officer’s medal it was still an old style and the medal did not appear re-named.

I had examined them in April 2023 when they were offered at Nobles and was the under bidder when they sold. I was disappointed to miss them and pleasantly surprised to see that they appeared in the July sale – the dealer buyer having returned them as the engraving was not the style he had expected on the QSA (the KSA is impressed in the normal font and is a rare medal in its own right).

I decided to redeem this pair as if genuine they were a rare and important group and I knew there would be a story – which there was.

I think where the issues started with this set was the original research by Murray many years ago, as he got the recipients name wrong. His rolls record the recipient as Harry (and sometimes Henry) Clark Coggins. He was in fact Harrie Clark Coggins – a small mistake but an important one.

Harrie Coggins was born in Woollahra, Sydney on 31 December 1875. He was a Sergeant in F Coy of the 6th New South Wales Imperial Bushmen (4th Contingent) when he was promoted to Lieutenant in the 3rd NSW IB on 22 June 1901. This was announced in the Australian Town and Country Journal 21 December 1901. The 6th comprised 762 men who embarked for South Africa on 23 April 1900. Harrie was a Lance Corporal at embarkation with service number 125 but was promoted to Sergeant on 23 July 1900. They served in South Africa from May 1900 to May 1901 in Rhodesia under Carington and West Transvaal including capture of de la Rey's convoy and guns at Wildfontein (24 March 1901) They returned to Australia 17 July 1901, by which time Coggins had been commissioned into the 3rd.

On 20 August, after a 50 mile night march, the column of the 3rd NSW IB skirmished with the Boers near Wolmanstadt. One hundred wagons were captured, so too was livestock and "many" wounded Boers. In October the column moved to the east Transvaal, where it took part in General Hamilton's operations against the Boer.

In January 1902 a new squadron for the regiment was formed in Cape Town from Australians already in the country, as was another squadron in February. This brought the strength of the regiment to over 500. About 1,000 men in total are thought to have served in the unit, although it had no more than 600 at any time.

In May some of the men whose time had expired returned to Australia in the transport Ansonia but many more, and all the officers, volunteered for further service. Those who stayed were reinforced by 200 Victorian Riverina bushmen, raised by J.S. Horsfall.

The regiment spent the remainder of its time serving with Williams' column in West Transvaal, until peace was declared in June 1902.

On 12 July 1902 the regiment sailed from Durban, Natal, for Australia, on board the transport Drayton Grange, and arrived in Sydney on 11 August.

Lieutenant Coggins however remained in South Africa. He had met and fallen in love with a young Boer prisoner and he did not return home to Australia. Instead his sights were set firmly on Miss Melvina Ahrens who was aged 19 when she was interred in Concentration Camp at Klerksdorp in August 1901 (tent number RT 67/1461). She was a Transvaal Boer from Rietfontein District: Lichtenburg Farm - the daughter of Mrs Jacoba Alida Ahrens – a widow. In June 1902 Australian Minister Rev James Green reported from the Australian camp at Klerksdorp so presumably this is where Lieutenant Coggins was based. Certainly if Coggins was in a relationship with a prisoner whilst she was interned at the camp the military authorities would have been less than happy. 

They married at Klerksdorp, Transvaal on 30 March 1904 and it is unclear when their relationship commenced however the camp closed in January 1903. (source Granddaughter, Jan Coggins). Harries home at Sea Point, Cape Town was called Woollahra after his birthplace. Their daughter Melvina was born in South Africa the following year. They had 5 further children, the first three being born in South Africa until they returned to Australia in about 1909.

From 1903 to 1905 Harrie served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, Colonial Division, based at Cape Town. During 1904/05 he played representative cricket for Western Province in South Africa, scoring 63 runs for them in that season over 4 innings. (source ESPN and Wisdens).

The family settled in New South Wales and Harrie found work as a mine manager. In 1917 he was bankrupted however by 1929 he was an owner of Sydney Velodromes Limited, promoting car and bike racing.

He enlisted for WW2 in February 1942 stating that he was born in 1884 and was working as a company manager. Whilst he was not truthful about his age he did declare his previous military service as South African forces and later AIF.  By this stage he was living in Hawthorn, Victoria. He was posted to the Volunteer Defence Corps initially as a Private but in acknowledgement of his former commission he was promoted to Warrant Officer Class II and assigned the service number V350735. Due to his age his service wasn’t productive and 2 years later he was discharged because of his advanced age related issues and lack of specialist potential.

His son and namesake served as a Sergeant in 2/6 Field Regiment and the Middle East during WW2. His other son Richard was a Captain in 2/4 Light AA Regt AIF in Crete and the Middle East

Harrie Clark Coggins died at Eastwood, New South Wales on 2 July 1960 aged 84

His QSA with clasps for CC, Rhodesia, OFS and Transvaal is engraved in large block letters in the style referred to in “Australians Awarded: 2nd Edition as being unique to South Australians. The medal is named “LIET H.C.COGGINS NSW 3RD :IB”.               

At the Noble sale was a DCM and QSA pair to Sergeant Knapman, a member of the South Australian MR who won the DCM as a machine gunner. His QSA was named in the style referred to in the above book and was in every way identical to the style of the Coggins QSA. Quite simply, they were done for all intents and purposes by the same hand. We know the one with the DCM is genuine, so by default this one would seem genuine as well. Why was it named in South Australia? Or, were the hand engraved South Australia issues named elsewhere and sent to South Australia?

Oddly Nobles sold a QSA with the same bars to Coggins impressed as a Sergeant NSW Bushmen in 1994. Did that medal ever make its way to him in South Africa and perhaps that is why his QSA is hand engraved. Or perhaps it was rejected by him due to the non commissioned rank. This pair first surfaced at Nobles in 2012 and was sold for $1500 plus premium to G Otypka. It was offered at Nobles in late 2022, early 2023 and returned and then purchased by me for $1000 plus premium (probably about the value of the KSA on its own)

The pair have the same wear, the same lengths of old ribbons, the same silver polish marks on the ribbons, and I would confidently state that they have been a pair for well over 100 years.

Is it ever going to be as a highly regarded as a doubly impressed pair to another Australian Regiment, probably not but then all officers QSAs are engraved. Is it an interesting set that I have redeemed and given some history back to – I am inclined to think so.

There were 640 KSAs to Australians, 207 to the 3rd NSW IB. The KSA is impressed LIEUT: H C COGGINS NSW IB.