Auction Catalogue

2 July 2003

Starting at 10:00 AM

.

Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Grand Connaught Rooms  61 - 65 Great Queen St  London  WC2B 5DA

Lot

№ 411

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2 July 2003

Hammer Price:
£980

Pair: Lieutenant A. Steward, Bulawayo Field Force, late Cape Mounted Rifles, the Pioneer Column, Salisbury Horse and Bulawayo Mounted Police

Cape of Good Hope General Service 1880-97, 2 clasps, Transkei, Basutoland (Pte., C.M. Rifn.); British South Africa Company Medal 1890-97, reverse Matabeleland 1893, 1 clasp, Rhodesia 1896 (Troop Sergt. Major, Salisbury Horse), together with lid of card box of issue for the second, nearly extremely fine (2) £400-450

Augustine Steward, who was actually a Corporal (No. 156) in the original Pioneer Column but never claimed his 1890 Medal, went on to see action at Shangani and Bambesi in 1893, presumably as a Troop Sergeant-Major in the Salisbury Horse, in addition to operations in the Mashona Rebellion in 1896, firstly as a Trooper in ‘B’ Troop of the Bulawayo Mounted Police, and afterwards as a Lieutenant in ‘E’ Troop of the Bulawayo Field Force. Steward’s earlier services with the Cape Mounted Rifles in the Transkei and Basutoland operations of 1880-81 are also verified.

Sources at the old Queen Victoria Museum in Rhodesia state that he died at Klondike, presumably before 1927, when the 1890 Medal was retrospectively introduced.