Orders, Decorations and Medals

An extremely rare “Pioneer’s” British South Africa Company’s 1890-97 Medal awarded to Trooper C. G. MacPherson, Victoria Column, late British South Africa Company’s Police

British South Africa Company Medal 1890-97, reverse undated, 2 clasps, Mashonaland 1890, Matabeleland 1893 (Tpr. C. G. MacPherson, B.S.A.C.P.), extremely fine £2500-3000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of British South Africa Company 1890-97 Medals.

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British Battles & Medals states that just 11 such Medal & clasp combinations were issued.

Charles Glenely MacPherson was born in the Straits Settlements in 1861, the son of Ronald MacPherson, then the First Colonial Secretary but previously a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Madras Artillery and a veteran of the First Opium War (see Dix Noonan Webb, December 2008, Lot 270, for his China 1840-42 Medal). Charles was the youngest of nine children.

In 1885, he joined the Bechuanaland Border Police before entering Mashonaland as a Trooper in Captain E.C. Chamley-Turner’s ‘D’ Troop, British South Africa Company’s Police, in the 1890 Pioneer Column. During this time he is described in Hickman’s Men Who Made Rhodesia as a ‘remittance man’. He afterwards served in the Matabele Rebellion as a Troop Sergeant-Major in the Victoria Column, when he was present in the actions of Shangani on 25 October and Imbembesi on 1 November 1893.

Official records also confirm that he enrolled in the Natal Police in November 1898, in which capacity he was awarded the Queen’s South Africa Medal with clasps for “South Africa 1901” and “South Africa 1902”, and the Natal Medal with clasp for the rebellion in 1906, latterly as an N.C.O.; accompanying research also indicates possible service in the Great War.

In March 1930, MacPherson contacted the authorities to obtain the necessary paperwork to claim ‘the ‘93 Matabele Rebellion Medal’, on account of him having lost his original award ‘during my campaigning’ - to which fact he added, on completing the relevant application form, ‘lost at sea on the Guildford Castle when she was torpedoed’. And to support his claim of active service, he stated in his covering letter that he thought Captain Nesbitt, V.C., would remember him - ‘We met at Fort Victoria about the time Lord Randolph Churchill was out there’. MacPherson duly signed for the safe receipt of his award on 15 August 1930, but now explained that he could not return his original award since he had left it ‘with some people in Johannesburg’ when he joined up in the Great War - ‘I am trying to trace them now as they have five medals and trunk of personal belongings of mine. Directly I get in touch with them I will get the medal and return it to you.’

MacPherson settled in Durban, where he died in November 1937, aged 76 years, leaving a wife, Annie, and a daughter Sheila Mary MacPherson, his first wife, Harriett Mary, having pre-deceased him just prior to the Boer War; sold with original letter from the Department of Defence, Salisbury, dated 24 March 1930, inviting the recipient to claim the above described Medal & clasps, together with a good quantity of research, including details from the National Archives of Zimbabwe.