South Africa Medal 1877-79

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: '1878'. Inscription on edge: 'D.CONSTANTINE, S.STDS.BOY H.M.S. TAMAR'.

David Constantine (1863-1905) was born in Portsmouth to Jeremiah Constantine - a Greenwich Pensioner born in Ireland and Elizabeth (Glover). His father died in 1866, leaving his mother engaged in laundry work as a ‘mangle woman’. The family’s income had been supplemented by taking in borders. David was educated at ‘Greenwich School’ probably the Royal Hospital School, Greenwich, and entered the Navy on 8 May 1878 as a ship’s steward’s boy. The troopship HMS ‘Tamar’ was his second ship. He joined her on 2 December 1878 and was on her books until 6 December 1880 receiving the South Africa Medal 1877-79 for his service during the Zulu War. Now an assistant ship’s steward, he moved to ‘Hercules’, part of the reserve fleet and serving as a coastguard ship stationed at Portland. During an official visit to St Petersburg in July 1881, she acted as the flagship of HRH Arthur, Duke of Edinburgh, then a rear-admiral. On 30 August the reserve fleet, which the Duke of Edinburgh commanded, steamed down the Solent, viewed by his mother, Queen Victoria in the royal yacht. Constantine continued in the reserve fleet in ‘Lord Warden’ until 29 January 1883. Between 1884 and 1886 in ‘Curaçoa’, he spent time on the China Station. Between 14 February 1888 and 5 March 1891, he was in surveying vessel ‘Stork’, promoted to ship’s steward. The ship successfully located a small rock at the south end of the Red Sea on which two steamships had struck the previous year. She was then deployed surveying the East Coast of Africa, becoming the first naval vessel to reach the Zambezi river from the coast - the last part of the journey completed in the ship’s boats.
Constantine’s last recorded naval service was in 1893 and in the 1901 census is recorded living in Portsmouth, married to Rebecca (Batchelor) with a young family. His occupation is given as ‘hand driller’.