Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Sergeant F. Newby, Governor-General’s Foot Guards

North West Canada 1885, 1 clasp, Saskatchewan (Stf-Sgt., G.G.F.G.) engraved naming; Colonial Auxiliary Forces Long Service, V.R. (Sergeant, G.G.F.G.) impressed naming, slight edge bruising and contact marks, very fine (2) £700-800

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Long Service Medals from the Collection formed by John Tamplin.

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Frank Newby was born on 1 April 1851. He entered the Canadian Department of Inland Revenue on 22 October 1873 and joined the Governor-General’s Foot Guards on 4 August 1874. As a marksman and ranked as a Lance-Corporal in 1878, he qualified for the Wimbledon and Bisley Teams. He was promoted to Sergeant in 1880 and Staff Sergeant in 1884. In 1885 during the suppression of Riel’s Rebellion in North West Canada, a company of sharpshooters of the G.G.F.G. was offered for service, and Staff Sergeant Newby was one of the members. For his services he was awarded the campaign medal and clasp. Newby retired from the G.G.F.G. in 1899. He was awarded the Colonial Auxiliary Forces L.S. Medal in Militia Order 131 of 1902. Sold with copied photographs and copied research

Amongst the latter is a copy of a letter written by Newby to the sister of Private Osgoode, who was killed in the action at Cut Knife, 2 May 1885. Osgoode who had been wounded in the action had inadvertently been left behind as the Canadian forces pulled back and had later been killed by the Indians. On 5 June a party of men who had not fought in the action returned to the battlefield, disinterred the body of Osgoode, and reburied it with honours beside that of another killed on that day. Newby, evidently the senior N.C.O. of that party, wrote on 19 November 1885:- ‘My Dear Miss Osgood (sic), Enclosed you will please find the small pieces of your poor brother’s tunic picked up by me at Cut Knife Hill on the 6th of June. With kind regards. Believe me faithfully yours, Frank Newby’