NAM.2017-09-7-13-38

Studio portrait photograph of Sgt Maj Alexander Augustus Stewart Thomas DCM, 1st Battalion, Grenadier Guards, 1900 (c). He sits on a chair wearing his First Class tunic and sash, ornate Warrant Officer’s white belt and clasp, and with his sword leaning against his hand. On his lower left arm are shooting badges - the upper one, a star over crossed rifles indicates the best shot in a company; the lower one, crossed rifles in a wreath with crown over indicate he is the best shot in his battalion. His rank badge is visible on his upper right arm. He wears four medals (from left to right): Silver Medal, Royal Victorian Order; Edward VII 1902 Coronation Medal; Distinguished Conduct Medal; Queen’s South Africa Medal with four clasps. Over the top of his medals hangs a metal brooch in the shape of a rifle. This Golden Gun indicates that he was the regiment’s best shot in a competition still run today. Sgt Maj Thomas was a Drill Instructor at the Guards Depot in Caterham and also at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. From an album of 68 photographs compiled by or presented to Col Maxwell Earle DSO. The album is entitled: ‘Personal Album, M. Earle. South Africa - 1900-1904’, but covers the period 1899-1909. The images and group portraits are mainly taken in England, such as in London, or Aldershot, plus a few taken in South Africa during the Boer War.