Auction Catalogue

14 April 2021

Starting at 10:00 AM

.

Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Live Online Auction

Download Images

Lot

№ 310 x

.

14 April 2021

Hammer Price:
£3,400

The Egypt campaign pair awarded to D. M. Carley, a prominent Canadian journalist who volunteered to join the Canadian boatmen in 1884, becoming a ‘Nile voyageur’ with the Manitoba Contingent in addition to his work as a war correspondent

Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, undated reverse, 1 clasp, The Nile 1884-85 (72. Boatn. D. M. Carley. Manitoba Contgt.); Khedive’s Star 1884-6, polished, otherwise good very fine (2) £1,800-£2,200

88 medals issued to the Manitoba Contingent of Canadian Voyageurs for the Nile Expedition.

David M. Carley was born in 1859 in Franktown, Ontario. At the age of 16 he headed to Winnipeg to work as a journeyman printer. He eventually saved enough money to open his own shoe store, but this was not successful. He decided to try his hand at journalism and travelled throughout North America. Whilst working as a reporter for the Montreal Gazette he was sent to cover the departure of the Canadian Voyageurs for Egypt aboard the Ocean Queen on 14 September 1884. Learning that they were short of one recruit to make up the complement, he volunteered, wrote his article, dispatched it to the newspaper, and embarked on the spur of the moment. He continued as correspondent while with the expedition, and apparently established a newspaper in the Soudan. On his return from Egypt he worked for the Minneapolis Gazette in 1885, making his way to Victoria, British Columbia, by 1890. In 1891 he founded the Victoria Home Journal and the British Columbia Commercial Journal. In the late 1890s, he worked in Los Angeles before moving to the Kootenays in British Columbia. He established successful newspapers in Nelson and Ladysmith and died in Victoria, British Columbia, in 1923.

Sold with some further research, including copied newspaper articles, and four small pebbles collected by Carley as a remembrance of his time in Egypt.