South Africa Medal 1877-79

Obverse: Head of Queen Victoria with a diadem, hair tied in a knot (left) Legend: 'VICTORIA REGINA'. Reverse: a lion crouching to drink, a bush behind. Exergue: A Zulu ox-hide shield crossed with four assegais. Legend: 'SOUTH AFRICA'. Fitted with a cusped bar and buff ribbon with two broad blue stripes near the edge and two narrow inner ones. Bar: '1879'. Inscription on edge: 'W. CHAPPLE. PTE. R.M. H.M.S. ACTIVE'.

Walter Chapple (1857-1916) was born in Enfield, London the son of James and Mary. His name is given as Chappell in civil records and Chapple in military sources. In 1874 he enlisted in the Royal Marines at Westminster, aged 18, his occupation given as ‘groom’. On 18 August 1876, he received a good conduct badge. He served in the troop ship HMS ‘Orontes’ from 2 November 1876 to 19 March 1877, and for a short period on HMS ‘Tourmaline’. He was then in HMS ‘Active’ from 8 September 1877 to 5 August 1879 - his conduct given as ‘excellent’. Private Chapple was awarded the Africa War Medal with the 1879 bar for the Zulu War. Although he had enlisted for twelve years, he only served a little over five, leaving the marines at the end of 1879.
During 1881, Walter Chapple was working as a merchant seaman on ‘Alpha’, in Tynemouth at the time of the census, but subsequently he went back to working with horses. In 1886 he married Annie Carroll from Sligo, in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Lancashire where he remained for the rest of his life. The couple had four children and after Annie died, Walter remarried Martha Ratcliffe in 1902.