Queen's South Africa medal: multi clasp medals

The Register is a large database with many types of data that can be interrogated in ways not yet done to provide new and unique views of the British Empire in the Anglo-Boer War.

The Queen's South Africa (QSA) medal could be issued with zero to 26 clasps in a variety of combinations. These combinations are of great interest to many medal collectors.

The number of clasps on a QSA is one collecting facet. As I build a new QSA medal roll index, the table below shows the numbers of clasps issued on the QSA drawn from the current 124,948 QSA clasp entitlement on The Register. As more data is added these numbers will change.

Clasps	No Date Clasps	All Including Date Clasps
0	12178	12178
1	12098	12374
2	12808	20827
3	23504	26316
4	10368	33208
5	6203	26305
6	3583	4828
7	396	846
8	146	207
9	0	37
10	0	0
Total QSA	69106	124948

There are no 10 clasp QSAs, but I have included this number as some may believe 10 clasp QSAs were issued. The June 1972 issue of the Military History Journal published an article entitled Queen's South Africa Medal with 10 Bars by GR Duxbury. I had another look at the medal in question, a 10 clasp medal named to Trooper M(oses) Wilson Damant's Horse. The medal was part of the Ronnie Hunt collection on permanent loan to the SA National War Museum, now the Ditsong National Museum of Military History. I wrote a reply, The ten-clasp QSA mystery resolved, Military History Journal (South African Military History Society) vol 125 No 5 June 2012.

I established that Trooper Wilson's 10 clasp QSA Belmont, Modder River, Paardeberg, Driefontein, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, Wittebergen, Relief of Kimberley, South Africa 1901 and South Africa 1902 should be an eight clasp QSA with the two date clasps on the King's South Africa medal.