Harold Hurley Way Mid QM & Captain

[Jerry B]

A Victory Medal that I bought a few months back as it was an unusual rank, Quarter master and Captain Harold Hurley Way ASC.

He was born on 7th July 1880 and served initially with the 2nd Volunteer Company 2nd Battalion the Gordon Highlanders with whom as Pte #8821 he was wounded in South Africa during the 2nd Boer war. He earned the Queen's South Africa Medal (QSA) with four bars -Belmont, Belfast, Orange Free State & Natal but did not get the KSa medal so I assume he was sent home after his wounding. His medal roll for the QSA has him at the time of issue as a Sgt #T/20829 with 18th Company Army Service Corps.

During WWI he went to France & Flanders with the BEF on 12th of August 1914 with the earliest wave of old soldiers and had reached the rank of Machinist Sgt Major, Quarter master and Honorary Lt when he was mentioned in Dispatches on 17/2/15 which was gazetted in the London Gazette.

By wars end he was Quarter Master and Captain which is the rank that appears on his Victory Medal and his MIC states he was entitled to the 1914 star, clasp, roses and emblem as well as the War medal and the Victory medal to go with his QSA and four bars.

Post war he served in india (perhaps earning a post war India GS medal?) and in 1934 he was Gazetted Lt Colonel with the RASC, though sadly he passed away in 1937 still only aged 57.

[Jerry B]

Strange, well to me, that an old soldier who served for nearly 40 years, rising in rank from private to Lt. Colonel, who was wounded in the Boer War, who was an old contemptible mentioned in dispatches in the great war and who was there right from the start of the war in August 1914, who then stayed in the army serving in India (and probably elsewhere) until reaching senior officer rank before his early death at the age of 57 fails to elicit a single comment.