Queen's South Africa Medal : Private J Burley, 1 Western Australian (Mounted Infantry) Contingent

Queen's South Africa Medal with clasps 'WITTEBERGEN', 'DIAMOND HILL', 'JOHANNESBURG' and 'CAPE COLONY'. Impressed around edge with recipient's details.

Johnston 'Joe' Burley was born in Ireland in 1873. His family emigrated to Melbourne where Burley was apprenticed as a carpenter and served as a volunteer soldier. In the early 1890s he moved to New Zealand before returning to Melbourne and then travelling to Western Australia, where he worked until October 1899, when he enlisted for service in the Boer War, in 1 Western Australian (Mounted Infantry) Contingent. In South Africa the contingent served with the Kimberly Relief Force. On 9 February 1900 Burley was in a group of twenty Western Australians to the south of Jasfontein Farm near Slingersfontein which dug in on a kopje that became known as Australian Hill. Supported by a few guns the men prepared to repel any pursuers and held out until sunset against hundreds of Boers, refusing calls to surrender and sniping from behind improvised stone shelters. Burley was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) for outstanding gallantry in this action. After serving in Transvaal, Orange Free State and Cape Colony he returned to Perth and was promoted lance corporal in 1901. Burley joined the WA Government Railways and qualified as an engine driver in 1903. He enlisted in the AIF on 19 January 1917 as a company sergeant major in 5 Broad Gauge Railway Operating Company and served in Belgium between June 1917 and April 1918, before transferring to the 6th Company in France. He was awarded a bar to his DCM in 1917, 'For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty when in charge of a train.' Burley returned to Australia on 21 March 1919 and resumed work as an engine driver. He retired after a railway accident in 1934 severely damaged his legs. He died in 1955.