Queens South Africa Medal (MR. W.G. COULTON)
William Gordon Coulton was a Solicitor who went out to South Africa aboard the S.S. "Scot" arriving in Cape Town on 27.4.1901. In the absence of a medal roll, a common occurrence with Boer War medals to Civilians, it is not immediately clear what role he played in the Administration. The medal is correctly named and impressed.
Coulton's address, prior to departure for Africa, was 38 Trinity St., Handsworth, Staffordshire and his obituary, which appeared in the Birmingham Daily Post of 2.4.1915, provides insight into the man. It read as follows:
"The death has occurred at Chipping Campden of Mr William Gordon Coulter, a Solicitor who practices in his early days at Moreton-in-Marsh and Erdington, and afterwards in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In South Africa he rendered valuable service on the Commission of Accounts after the Boer War. He had lives in Campden for the last few years. He had held several public offices and was honorary secretary of the cricket club and vice captain of the bowling club."
What was not mentioned in his obituary was his disreputable past - the Liverpool Echo of 25.2.1880 (when he would have been recently admitted as a 23 year old Solicitor) carried an article, "The Charges Against a Solicitor" which stated that, "The enquiry respecting the allegations against Mr William Gordon Coulton, a solicitor, the clerk to the Birmingham guardians, was resumed this morning before Mr Henley, Local Government Board Inspector, when the clerk tendered his resignation, which was accepted, it being agreed that no further action should be taken in the matter." Coulton had been "charging considerably more for postage stamps than was actually used, and had also been irregular with regards to other payments."
His effects, £65, were willed to his wife, Ellen, whom he had married in Observatory, Cape Town on 15.4.1902, six weeks before the end of the Anglo Boer War. His occupation on the marriage certificate was provided as Solicitor.
