Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The excessively rare Lake Tanganyika 1915-16 Expedition D.S.C. group of four awarded to Lieutenant A. E. Wainwright, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, “The Old Loco Driver” and mainstay of that remarkable team of Jack Tars who transported two gunboats through 100 miles of African jungle to successfully challenge German superiority on Lake Tanganyika - and inspire C. S. Forester’s “The African Queen”

Distinguished Service Cross, G.V.R.; 1914-15 Star (S. Lt., R.N.V.R.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut., R.N.V.R.) extremely fine (4) £6000-8000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Richard Magor Collection of Medals Relating to India and Africa, and other Fine Awards.

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D.S.C. London Gazette 31 May 1916: ‘In recognition of his services in command of a motor boat on Lake Tanganyika on the occasion of the destruction of the German gunboat “Hedwig von Wissman” on 9 February 1916.’

No single achievement during the Great War was distinguished by more bizarre features than the successfully executed undertaking of 28 daring men who transported a ‘ready-made’ Navy overland through the wilds of Africa to destroy an enemy flotilla in control of Lake Tanganyika.

In the summer of 1915, the key to success in Central Africa lay in the overwhelming German supremacy on Lake Tanganyika. Just how this was challenged by a force of two motor boats commanded by an eccentric Naval Officer with a talent for public relations is one of the most extraordinary stories of the whole War. To cover the three thousand miles or so that lay between Cape Town and the Lake, the boats had to be hauled by steam traction engines and ox trains over more than a hundred miles of extremely wild and difficult country, where there were no roads or communications of any kind. The whole journey, by barely navigable rivers and narrow-gauge railways, through country where sleeping-sickness and other ghastly diseases were rife, is one of the strangest passages in the history of the Royal Navy. The two boats, with a small expeditionary force under the command of Commander G. Spicer Simpson, R.N., arrived at Cape Town towards the end of June 1915. By the 23 December the Mimi and Toutou, as the boats were christened, had been successfully launched on the Lake, and three days later the first action was fought.

Lieutenant A. E. Wainwright, R.N.V.R., who had established his authority from the beginning, was a man to whom everyone turned in an emergency. He was already known affectionately to the ratings as “The Old Loco Driver”. In fact he was a great deal more. He had worked for many years in Africa, not only on coming up with the railway from Beira to Rhodesia, but on transport work with oxen, traction engines and native labour. He had a large farm in Rhodesia, raising cattle and growing mealies, which he had left in charge of a partner in order to return home and enlist in Kitchener’s Army.


Commander Spicer Simpson was deferential, almost apologetic towards Wainwright, as if he were a bit afraid of him. He never gave him a direct order, it was always “Mr. Wainwright, I am thinking you might do this or that”, or “I’d be much obliged to you, Mr. Wainwright,” all without the least hint of sarcasm. He could not have failed to notice that the battle had enhanced and clinched the admiration of all hands, Officers and men alike, for “The Old Loco Driver”.

The first encounter with the enemy took place on 26 December, resulting in the capture of the German gunboat Kingani, a vessel of 30-40 tons, armed with one gun. A 12-pounder was mounted on her, and as H.M.S. Fifi she proved to be a valuable addition to the British Flotilla. This left the enemy with two ships, the Graf von Gotzen, a vessel of 400-500 tons carrying one 4-inch and two smaller guns, and the Hedwig von Wissman, a gunboat of about three times the tonnage of the captured one.

Wainwright was placed in command of the Mimi, whilst Spicer Simpson embarked in the Fifi and on 6 February 1916 the Hedwig von Wissman was attacked by both of them, and sunk after a running fight of three hours duration. The result was largely due to the skilful manoeuvring of the two British vessels. The Mimi kept astern of the enemy and out of range of his after gun, causing him to tack from side to side in order to bring his foremost gun to bear, and thus delaying him until the Fifi could get within range. Finally a high explosive shell from the Fifi destroyed the enemy’s engines. Before she sank, the Germans abandoned ship, and all except two Europeans and three natives, who had been killed, were picked up by the Fifi and Mimi. It would have been satisfactory if the third and largest of the German ships could have been accounted for by the British Flotilla, but she did not risk an engagement. After being bombed by a Belgian aeroplane, she was scuttled by the Germans in Kigoma Harbour, on the eastern shore of the Lake.

So ended Germany’s command of Tanganyika. Apart from the material loss inflicted on the enemy, the success of the Naval Expedition did much to enhance British prestige among the natives, not only in the immediate neighbourhood of the Lake, but in the northern districts of Rhodesia and in adjacent German territory.

In consequence of the great success of the expedition, Spicer Simpson was awarded the D.S.O., Wainwright and two other Officers the D.S.C., and 12 ratings the D.S.M.

For further reading, in addition to the more well known title Phantom Flotilla, there is a superbly illustrated article, Transporting a Navy Through the Jungles of Africa in War Time, which appeared in The National Geographic Magazine in October 1922, by Frank G. Magee (copy included). Although C. S. Forester’s famous novel The African Queen has a somewhat different story line, it was undoubtedly inspired by the Lake Tanganyika Expedition of 1915-16. So, too, of course, the subsequent oscar-winning film starring Humphrey Bogart.