Auction Catalogue

22 July 2016

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Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

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Lot

№ 443

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22 July 2016

Hammer Price:
£2,800

‘On the Wednesday [22 August 1860], Mr. Forrest volunteered to take to the Insurgents the dispatches that had been sent to Sungkeang in the ‘Kestrel’ and Hong Kong. His offer was accepted, and every aid afforded him for effecting what seemed to all a sufficiently daring ride. Accompanied by a single soldier named Phillips, who had a white napkin attached to his bayonet, Mr. Forrest rode out of the South Gate, skirted the City wall to the south-west angle, and then rode for the bridge which crossed the Sica wei canal. A good system of signals had been arranged with the West Gate, one dip of the flag on the bayonet meaning all right, and three dips all wrong. Finding no one at the bridge it was determined to proceed to the rebel camp which was about a mile ahead; on nearing the flags a man was observed on the roof of a house, and on being hailed by Mr. Forrest, descended, and by the appearance of many soldiers running to the camp evidently gave the alarm. The two foreigners thereupon rode through the first lot of flags up to the gate of the camp, and were met by several soldiers almost all having European arms in their possession. On the request being made that some officer should be sent for, a mass of about two hundred rebels came down bearing a huge white flag in the centre of which was painted the “pa kua” and a fine daring looking man dressed in purple silk then presented himself as an officer. After the usual civilities the officer complained of the resistance the foreigners had offered to them, asserting at the same time that the insurgents had been invited to Shanghai by foreigners of all nations. Mr. Forrest was pressed to proceed to Sica wei and see the Chung Wang, but declining the request, that gentleman delivered his dispatches and made his way back to the city wall making the signal that all was well. About twenty corpses were passed on the path alone; by the tainted atmosphere the locality of many more was designated where they could not be seen, and the loss of the insurgents, taking what was seen on this ride as evidence, could not have been inconsiderable.’


The North China Herald, 25 August 1860, refers.

The outstanding China 1857-60 Medal awarded to Robert Forrest, a gallant Student Interpreter of the China Consular Service

China 1857-60, no clasp (Rt. Jas. Forrest, Interpr. Expedy. Force), officially impressed naming, with riband buckle for wearing, toned very fine £800-1000

Nine China Consular Service officers were employed as interpreters in the Second China War 1857-60; just two of their Medals are known to be extant.

Robert James Forrest entered the Chinese Consular Service from the China Class of King’s College London in 1858.

His involvement in the Second China War may be said to have commenced on 20 August 1860, when the Hon. Frederick Bruce, C.B., Minister Plenipotentiary and Superintendent of Trade at Shanghai, placed him at the disposal of Commander Reilly, R.N., of H.M.S.
Pioneer, as an interpreter. Hence Forrest’s gallant foray into the enemy’s camp on 22 August 1860, as cited above.

He was duly mentioned in despatches by Lieutenant-Colonel March, commanding at Shanghai, which despatch was included in Lieutenant-General Sir James Hope Grant’s despatch to the Secretary for State for War in London, dated at H.Q., Tientsin, 2 September 1860:

‘I wish to bring to the notice of His Excellency [the C.-in-C.] the spirited conduct of Mr. Forrest, in volunteering to take the notification sent by the Commanding Officer of Allied Forces to the camp of the rebels on the 22nd instant; he was attended in his somewhat dangerous undertaking by Private Phillips of the Royal Marines, likewise a volunteer, who carried the flag of truce.’

Following his daring foray into the enemy’s camp, Forrest was instructed by Mr. Harry Parkes, C.B., the Consul at Shanghai, to proceed to Nanking, some 160 miles up the Yangtze, where H.M.S.
Centaur, was stationed, in order to assume the duties of interpreter to the Senior Naval Officer (S.N.O.). Forrest, unable to find a vessel to take him to Nanking, later reported to Parkes, ‘I consequently determined to make my way through insurgent country to Nanking.’

Thus ensued further adventures, in the company of a companion, the Reverend J. Edkins. They travelled part of the way by boat to Tanyang and thence cross-country by sedan chair. Forrest made it his business to collect as much information as possible and at Soochow he gained an interview with the Taiping second-in-command. His subsequent report described the ‘utter ruin and desolation’ which marked the line of the Taiping march and how human remains lay about ‘in all directions.’

Following his courageous journey to Nanking, Forrest settled down to his duties as interpreter to the S.N.O., Captain Aplin, R.N., duties enacted in the period March-September 1861. He subsequently submitted a number of interesting despatches on the activities and proclamations of the Taipings.

Forrest, who was called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn in 1872, retired from the Consular Service in April 1893 and died in London in July 1902, aged 66.

His story is told at length in They Gave Us Each a Medal: The Collected Works of Tim Ash, M.B.E., edited by Tom Donovan (2012), a copy of which is included; so, too, an extensive file of copied research, including Forrest’s assorted China reports, as extracted from Foreign Office files.