Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Family Group:

Pair: Major W. F. W. Fosbery, C.M.G., O.B.E., Royal Defence Corps, also a distinguished Political Officer in West Africa, who was severely wounded during the Niger Coast Expedition against the Nibo in 1898, and was Mentioned in Commissioner R. Moor’s Despatch for his services in the Ishan and Ulia countries to the north-east of Benin City, March - May 1901. Fosbery eventually rose to be High Commissioner for Southern Nigeria, and later served as Consul for the Cameroons
East and West Africa 1887-1900, 1 clasp, 1899 (Political. Offr: W. F. W. Fosbery. Niger. C. P. Fce.); Africa General Service 1902-56, 3 clasps, S. Nigeria, S. Nigeria 1902, S. Nigeria 1902-03 (Mr. W. F. [sic] Fosbery, S. Nigeria Rgt.) mounted as worn, generally good very fine, scarce

India General Service 1908-35, 1 clasp, Waziristan 1919-21 (Lt. F. C. W. Fosbery. R.E.) minor edge nicks, good very fine (3) £2,000-£2,400

C.M.G. London Gazette 30 June 1905 (Senior Divisional Commissioner, Protectorate of Southern Nigeria).

O.B.E. London Gazette 3 June 1919.

Widenham Francis Widenham Fosbery was born in Liverpool in October 1869. He joined the Colonial Service, and was appointed a Consular Agent for the Niger Coast Protectorate in 1893. Fosbery was appointed District Commissioner of Southern Nigeria in 1896, before serving as Political Officer for the Central Division Expedition of 1898. He was severely wounded during the latter, and further detail is added by the following article which appeared in the Liverpool Press in 1898:

‘AFFAIRS IN WEST AFRICA
FIGHTING IN THE NIGER
PROTECTORATE.
THE SIERRA LEONE RISING.
(REUTER'S TELEGRAM )
The mail steamer Bakana which has arrived in Liverpool from the West Coast of Africa brings intelligence of the Niger Coast expedition against the Nibo chief, who has been stopping trade. The Nibo chief was summoned to a palaver, but refused, and the troops attacked the town, which was protected by a thick bush stockade. The stockade was captured and the town demolished under heavy fire. Two British officers, Major Searle and Consul Fosbery, were wounded, and two native soldiers and a number of carriers killed. The chief escaped into the bush, but eventually came in and surrendered. No estimate could be formed of the Nibos killed. At Sierra Leone, the Naval Brigade, consisting of about 800 men, was landed from the warships there, and marched through the town. This is the first time in the history of that colony that such a proceeding has occurred, and the natives seemed greatly impressed. On the basis of information received from Sierra Leone and statistics collected it is computed that the loss of life through the rising in that colony will be found to be very little short of a thousand. No statistics have been received of the native war boys and native rebels killed by the British warships, the West Indian troops, and the Frontier Police, but information
received leads to the belief that this list will be found to be an exceedingly heavy one.’

Fosbery was appointed Resident of Benin City in 1898, and served as Political Officer for the Benin Territory Expedition of 1899. He served in the same capacity for the Ishan Expedition of 1901 (for which Fosbery was Mentioned in High Commissioner R. Moor’s Despatch London Gazette 18 April 1902, ‘Mr. Widenham Fosbery, the Political Officer who accompanied the expedition, and assisted in providing carriers and transport, and showed great tact and judgement in dealing with the unfriendly tribes when the military operations were completed’), the Asaba Hinterland Expedition of 1902, and the Igarra Expedition of 1903. Fosbery served as Acting High Commissioner for Southern Nigeria, 1903-04, and as Deputy High Commissioner and Acting Secretary from the latter year. He also served as Provisional Commissioner and Member of the Executive Council and Legislative Council in 1906.

Fosbery, and his wife, were mentioned many times in the correspondence of Mary Slessor, the famous Scottish Presbyterian missionary to Nigeria, from her residence in Use, Southern Nigeria. Fosbery also received favourable mentions for his work as High Commissioner for Southern Nigeria from the author and much respected Africanist Percy Amaury Talbot. In particular in Life in Southern Nigeria which was finished in 1914. Talbot relates the following anecdote of a former District Commissioner - A.C.Douglas:

".....The firm African Association, as I told you, had kept the secrets of the river and the bar to themselves, and rather resented the advent of a Government representative; they had of course the monopoly of all the trade for some years. Thompson their auditor, told me it was by far their most paying factory, and he hoped no opposition would ever come in. MacIver's agent in Opobo was the intruder, and it happened in this way. We were laying the Eket and Oron telegraph line in 1903-4 and ... the Calabar Secretariat started bombarding me with ... missives re getting telegraph material around. I wrote to the agent Twist to charter the steamer; he had a little liver that day, and replied, "the ------- Government could wait; he wanted a load of gin from Calabar first." I was annoyed at this, so went to Opobo that day overland, and just caught the yacht with Mr. Widenham Fosbery, Acting High Commissioner, on board, and got him to sign a contract with MacIver to bring our stuff round, I personally guaranteeing to pilot the vessel in; I also gave him a chart we had in our office, and he reached Eket safely, much to the annoyance and disgust of the agent, who had so long held the key of the situation.’

Talbot later mentions his own experience of Fosbery:

‘....A narrow creek separates Effiatt Island from the mainland, and a short way down this, to the right, lies a stretch of sand just raised above the mangrove swamp. To this, in olden days, all small-pox sufferers were sent, and little heaps of broken pots may still be seen placed there as offerings to the Juju. This scourge was very prevalent in the neighbourhood, and when an epidemic swept through it is said that the crocodiles were quick to hear the news "They gathered round the little beach, attracted by the horrible smell of the disease. In the night time they used to creep up to the houses and seize sick people out of their beds, knowing that such were helpless and could not defend themselves. Leopards, on the contrary, appear to avoid towns on which this scourge has fallen, as the smell offends their nostrils."

Right through Effiatt runs another new creek, unmapped before our arrival. This leads to Akwa Obio Effiatt, the home of the great Oboyemi Juju, on which the prosperity of the town depends and which, the inhabitants say, gives them "life." A great carved ivory tusk lies in its shrine. Farther south is the mouth of Widenham Creek, named after a former Provincial Commissioner, Mr. Widenham Fosbery, to whom I and mine owe many a kindness. Into this creek flows that of Inua Abassi (God's Mouth) leading to the town of the same name. In the mud opposite the entrance of this little waterway a strong post is to be seen, to which in the old days a human sacrifice was annually bound, to be drowned by the rising tide, at the beginning of the fishing season. In these degenerate days only a goat may be offered....’

Fosbery also served as Acting Governor, before being appointed H.B.M.’s Consul for the Cameroons in 1910. He was commissioned a Lieutenant in the Territorial Force Reserve, and served as a Staff Captain 1915-16. Fosbery was appointed a Captain in the Royal Defence Corps in December 1916, and served as a Temporary Major and Assistant Supervising Officer in 1918 (not entitled to Great War Medals). He relinquished his commission in December 1919, and died in February 1935.

C.B.E. London Gazette 1 June 1953.

M.I.D. London Gazette 11 November 1943 (North Africa), the original recommendation (for an O.B.E.) states:

‘Until my arrival at A.F.H.Q. on March 25 1943, Brig Fosbery was the British Deputy to the American Chief Engineer, Allied Forces. The fact that he was considerably junior to both the Chief Engineer First Army and the Director of Works did not make his already heavy task any lighter.

The very excellent relations that were found existing on my arrival, between the British and Americans in this Section, and amongst the senior British Engineer officers is very largely due to his sound common sense, tact and judgement. His work has been very arduous and he has made a real success of it, never sparing himself. He has set a very high standard of devotion to duty.

The excellent working liason between this officer and the French Engineers both military and civil, can truthfully be said to owe a great deal to Brig Fosbery and the excellent terms on which he stands with them. Brig Fosbery has done a great deal towards cementing a United Allied front in so far as the Engineers - British, American and French are concerned.’

Francis Charles Widenham Fosbery was born in July 1899, and was a Cadet at the Royal Military Academy prior to being commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, June 1918. He subsequently served with the 4th Burma Sappers and Miners, and advanced to Captain in June 1929. Fosbery served as a Staff Officer, Royal Engineers in India during 1930s, and advanced to Major in June 1938. He served in North Africa during the Second War, and advanced to Lieutenant-Colonel in March 1944. Fosbery advanced to Colonel in April 1946, and to Brigadier in September 1951. He retired in January 1955.