The Jack Webb Collection of Medals and Militaria

Seven: Lieutenant-Colonel William Jesser-Coope, Brabant’s Horse, late 57th Foot and 7th Royal Fusiliers; he served at the siege of Sebastopol in 1855, was later a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Imperial Ottoman Gendarmerie, being taken prisoner in the Russo-Turkish War in 1877-78, and commanded ‘B’ Squadron of Brabant’s Horse throughout the siege of Wepener in 1900, before his appointment as Commandant of Boer prisoners of War at Diyatalawa Camp, Ceylon

Crimea 1854-56, 1 clasp, Sebastopol (Captain W. Jesser Coope, 57th Regiment.) contemporary engraved naming; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 2 clasps, Cape Colony, Wepener (Capt: W. Jesse-Coope, Brabants Horse); King’s South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (Capt: W. Jesser-Coope. S.A.M.I.F.); Ottoman Empire, Order of Osmanieh, 3rd Class neck badge, silver, gilt and enamel, green enamel damaged on several arms; Order of the Medjidieh, 3rd Class neck badge, silver, gilt and enamel; Turkish Crimea 1855, Sardinian issue (Captain W. Jesser Coope, 57th Regiment); Medal for the Russo-Turkish War 1877, silver (Colonel Jesser Coope Imperial Ottoman Gendarmerie) naming impressed in small capitals, the first with edge bruising and contact marks, better than good fine, otherwise very fine, the Boer War medals extremely fine and a remarkable group (7) £2,000-£3,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Jack Webb Collection of Medals and Militaria.

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William Jesser-Coope was born at Exmouth, Devon, on 1 February 1835, son of the Rev. William John Coope, sometime rector of Falmouth. Educated at Winchester, Jesser-Coope entered the 57th Foot as Ensign on 17 February 184; Lieutenant, 15 September 1854; Captain, 26 February 1856. He served in the Crimean War, being present at the attack on the Quarries, in the storming party on the Redan on the 18th June, for which he was mentioned in despatches, and also on the storming party on Kinburn. Placed on half-pay in November 1856, he transferred to the full pay of the 1/7th Royal Fusiliers on 23 October 1857, and to the 64th Foot on 3 March 1863.

Retiring from the Regular Army in 1871, on the reorganisation under Lord Cardwell, he was selected as an Inspector in the Imperial Ottoman Gendarmerie, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, under Baker Pasha. He assisted in the distribution of relief organised by Lady Burdett Coutts in the Balkans during the Russo-Turkish War. For the Turkish Army in the field he organised a stretcher service, but was captured with his staff at Telisch, and detained as a prisoner of war at Nizhny-Novgorod, being released in January 1878. He was present at the review of the Russian Army at St Stephano, and an article by his pen was published in The Times describing that historic event.

At the conclusion of the Boer War in 1881, he went to South Africa with Lord Roberts to establish a system of co-operative military colonies along the Transvaal border as a protection against Boer aggression, which he foresaw. The scheme, which received considerable support in this country, finally came to nothing. On the outbreak of the South African War of 1899 he raised, at General Brabant’s request, the ‘B’ Squadron of Brabant’s Horse, which he commanded. He was present at the siege of Wepener, where he entrenched the Mill Post at Johannesburg and held it throughout the siege. On being invalided out of the service after the battle of Friksburg, he was given command of the Boer prisoners of war interned in Ceylon at Diyatalawa Camp.

Colonel Jesser-Coope was a frequent correspondent to The Times, whose cordial support he received in his efforts to secure British paramountcy in Swaziland and Amatongaland. It was owing to his action that the latter country was proclaimed a protectorate.

Jesser-Coope married, in about 1860/61, Mary Moran, by whom he had 6 children, a son and daughter born as twins at Falmouth in 1862, after which the family appear to have gone to New Zealand for a few years, where their next two sons were born, Anthony Bridges Jesser-Coope in Auckland in 1868, and John Charles Jesser-Coope in 1870. The latter was a notable pioneer in Mashonaland in 1890 and a Lieutenant in the Jameson Raid of 1895. Two daughters were born in 1872 and 1876, in England and France respectively, sometime after which his wife died. Jesser-Coope married secondly, in February 1902, Madge, only daughter of the late Arthur Gasalee-Smyth, of Sydney, New South Wales.

William Jesser-Coope was the author of three books: A Prisoner of War in Russia (1878), The History of the Imperial Ottoman Gendarmerie (1880), and Swaziland as an Imperial Frontier (1892). He died at Alverstoke, Hampshire, on 23 November 1918, aged 82.