Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Poignant, Historically Important Manuscript Journal, Peking Siege Commemoration Medal and Archive of Doctor Wordsworth Poole, who was Mentioned in Despatches for his devoted and gallant services as Physician to the British Legation during the Siege at Peking, having previously served as Principal Medical Officer in Central Africa and Southern Nigeria.

Poole’s Journal, lavishly illustrated by sketches, diagrams, and tables, is a fascinating account of the rising tension between the foreign Legations and the Qing Court, the appearance of anti-foreigner ‘Boxers’, and the daily struggles of the defenders of the International Legations, all from the perspective of ‘the fighting doctor’ who set up and ran the improvised International Hospital and was a close confidante of, and advisor to, Sir Claude Macdonald, British Minister to the Qing Emperor, and his wife Ethel, Lady Macdonald.

i) Peking Siege Commemoration Medal, 57mm, bronze, the obverse featuring the Ch’ien Men engulfed in flames, in the exergue a cannon, ‘junii xx - augusti xiv’, the reverse featuring Britannia and Germania standing facing, clasping hands, a Chinese female standing behind; below a dragon, ‘mene. mene. tekel. upharsin. ichabod!’ impressed on the edge (Dr Wordsworth Poole C.M.G.)

ii) Dr Poole’s Personal handwritten Journal (marked ‘Private’) in two volumes, the first (rebound) running from January 1896 to May 1901, the second covering the period May 1901 up to November 1901, when he fell ill prior to his death in January 1902, the several hundred pages of acute observation and commentary contain much of historical, medical and mental health interest

iii) Dr Poole’s personal photograph album, covering the period 1895-1901, a fascinating companion to the Journal, 26 pages with hundreds of images in excellent condition, annotated and covering many of the personalities and places mentioned in his Journal and letters, including the Siege of the Legations

iv) Dr Poole’s personal letters to his family, mostly typed transcripts but some of the later ones from 1900 onwards are handwritten originals

v) Two framed original portrait photographs of the recipient

vi) Obituaries, notices, and much other ephemera relating to Wordsworth Poole, generally very good condition and an important and rare archive (lot) £12,000-£15,000

Dr Poole’s medal group, comprising The Order of St. Michael and St. George, Companion’s breast badge; Central Africa Medal 1891-98 with clasp Central Africa 1894-98; East and West Africa Medal 1887-1900, with clasp 1897-98; and China Medal 1900 with clasp Defence of Legations, was sold in these rooms in March 2021.

Wordsworth Poole was born at St. Paul’s Cray, Kent, on 7 December 1867, the son of Samuel Wordsworth Poole, an M.D. of Aberdeen and Vicar of St. Mark’s, Cambridge, and the grandson of Richard Poole, an eminent physician, psychiatrist and phrenologist, who practised in Edinburgh. He was educated at St. Olave’s School, London, where he won several scholarships, and St. Catherine's College, Cambridge. Completing his medical training at Guy’s Hospital, an organisation to which he developed a lifelong loyalty, qualifying as an M.B. and B.C.H. and serving time as house surgeon, he went overseas in search of adventure, first to Africa, then to China.

Africa
Poole kept a private Journal and wrote many letters to members of his family, providing a rare insight into an important period of British rule in the interior of Africa, dealing with the final overthrow of the armed forces of the African and Arab leaders who conducted a huge traffic in slaves. They also contain much of interest from a medical and mental health perspective and many references to the life led by the early Europeans in the interior of Africa (and subsequently, China). One of Poole’s first tasks was to make and fit a prosthetic for an African whose leg had been bitten off by a crocodile. Poole found his work with the indigenous peoples highly rewarding; he considered many of the European missionaries and soldiers less likeable as patients and companions.

The sickness and mortality rate amongst the Europeans must have been one of the highest in the world, an overall annual death rate of around 10%. The death rate among officials was particularly high. In 1897-98 out of the total of 65 in the country around Lake Nyasa there were 12 deaths (18%), practically all in the prime of life. Kinetic injuries abounded, especially in rural areas. Dr Poole joined Major C. E. Edwards on his campaign against Zirafi, a powerful slaver chief based on a steep, easily defended hill covered with boulders, which was tough to approach ‘with people potting at you from good cover.’ The skirmishing en-route was described by Poole in a letter to his mother: ‘I and my hospital carriers were passing a clearing when about 70 yards away from us two guns blazed off from behind rocks. The porters threw down their loads and hooked. My boy ran up to me with my rifle, and I was trying to catch sight of someone to fire at (I’m fairly steady with the rifle now) when I saw a flash and some smoke, followed by another, and a bullet fell near my feet, knocking up dust into my face.’ Poole performed several operations in the field: ‘Last Saturday I took off a man’s hand. He had been shot through the wrist by one of Zirafi’s men about six weeks ago. Since then he has had Tetanus… He is doing well now and it has all healed up by primary union.’

On 24 November 1895, Poole accompanied Major Edwards, Smith and Bradshaw of 35th Sikhs on the German Steamer S.S. Hermann von Wissman on their way up to subdue the Arab slaver strongholds of Mloze, Kopa Kopa and Kapandanser; their force of 400 soldiers arriving in detachments. Stopping on the way at Likoma, a missionary station, Poole reflected on the psychology of Europeans who came to Africa: ‘There is a peculiarity about the men who have been in Africa some time. You get into a groove of your own and can’t bear anyone else to be running the show with you. Look at Livingstone and his fearful temper and quarrels with other white men. Kirk, Stanley and all of them the same. One’s temper must become ruined. It is so noticeable with every head of out-stations; they are all bears in one way and brook no interference. I see that one must make enormous allowances for people out here. The circumstances are so adverse. There is no public opinion and such a fierce light of criticism beats upon the actions of a handful of white men out here.’

Poole described in his letters the appalling outbreaks of severe dysentery, malaria and blackwater fever and the difficulties he had in dealing with them single-handed: ‘Just now there is a great deal of sickness about. In the last fortnight I have had about 40 cases of very acute dysentery, some cases of pneumonia and other minor ones.’ He too succumbed to recurrent bouts of fever in the Nyasa region and in Nigeria, to extent that he had to return to England as a convalescent.

He recorded his options in his Journal on 6 June 1899: ‘1. Another billet from Colonial Office in a healthy climate. Such a billet as would be worth my while accepting would probably be a long time turning up. 2. Stay at home and try and get on Tropical School of Medicine - but pay poor. 3. Foreign Office said there was a possibility of post of physician to Legation at Peking falling vacant. Worth about £700 a year. Climate good. Drawbacks to this appointment not allowed private practice… and no further advancement. But an easy well-paid billet. My prospects in Nigeria were good - whether it will be possible or politic to go back to Nigeria after say 2 years in Peking is a question that will probably present itself later.’

China, the Boxers, and the Siege of the Legations
The post at Peking did fall vacant. Poole accepted it on 22 August 1899 and, three months later, departed Charing Cross, arriving at the British Legation (’An impressive place’) inside the Manchu City of Peking on 30 December 1899. The Legations of eleven nations had been grouped together in a district about 2km long and 1km deep, situated to the south of the Imperial City and to the east of what is today Tiananmen Square, in the shadow of the massive Tartar Wall which had been built to separate the part of the city inhabited by privileged Manchss from that inhabited by ordinary Chinese. The Legation compounds were not fortified or professionally guarded, and the district contained, in addition to the legation compounds, hotels, banks, post and customs offices as well as private dwellings. Poole was warmly welcomed by the British Minister to the Qing Court, Sir Claude Macdonald and his wife Ethel, Lady Macdonald, ‘who is kindness itself’. This welcome was the start of a firm, enduring friendship and close understanding with each of the MacDonalds. Sir Claude was universally respected by the bickering, bitchy diplomats of the various nations, but was greatly stressed by the unpredictable attitudes of the Chinese Mandarins and top officials and frequently laid low by a heart condition which Poole discreetly and successfully treated, although it killed Sir Claude 15 years later. The following day, as Poole settled in, he was handed a telegram: ‘Poole British Legation Peking. Following from Mr Chamberlain: Queen Pleased appoint you Companion Michael George Services West Africa.’ prompting him to write that night: ‘Ain’t it good biz at 32!’

On 3 February 1900 he recorded: ‘An English missionary has been murdered in Shantung by the Boxers. 29 wounds on body.’ Two weeks later, wearing the gown, hood and mortar-board of an MB, Poole entered the Imperial City to attend a rare Audience in the Zhongnanhai with the Qing Emperor. ‘He is 30 but looked 15-18… Someone said he saw the Empress Dowager peeping from behind a screen.’ Poole made a sketch of the Emperor in his Journal.

Wordsworth Poole’s younger brother Francis, a Captain in the East Yorkshire Regiment, was sent by the War Office to Peking to learn Chinese and Wordsworth eagerly anticipated his arrival on 20 May. The two Poole brothers could hardly have chosen a more pivotal time to be in Peking and would both play significant roles in what was to come. With the anti-foreign, anti-Christian, ‘Boxer’ movement steadily gaining momentum and approaching the capital, by late May a sudden sense of unease had gripped the International Legations in Peking. News of massacres of missionaries and their converts in the nearby provinces and cities combined with never-ending equivocation by the Chinese government as to its commitment to ensure the safety of defenceless foreigners (neither the Legations nor the missionary stations had any fortifications, defences or armed guards). By 28 May some missionaries began to seek refuge inside the Legations, stones were thrown at foreigners, the train service became unreliable, wild rumours abounded and Sir Claude’s male staffers conducted ‘vigilante’ patrols of the Legations district at night, while hostile Chinese troops appeared at the entrances to the Legations and in the surrounding areas.

The Ministers of the Legations began an almost constant series of meetings and requested their governments to send up armed guards from the various foreign fleets stationed along the coast. The first contingents arrived from Tientsin on 31 May. Dr Poole noted: ‘French, American, Russian, Japanese, Italian, British. Ours were Marines, the others Bluejackets, in all about 300, of which 75 were ours… U.S. [Marines] a serviceable looking lot… An odd sight. Foreign soldiers marching through the old Peking walls, streets thronged with Chinese mob.’ Almost all their firepower came from magazine rifles rather than crew-served weapons, and their ammunition supplies were limited. The British Marines bought no doctors or medical equipment with them, just a Sick Berth Attendant with a first aid haversack, despite the likelihood that the Marines would have to fight. Dr Poole commented: ‘Very bad medical management. There is a good deal of sickness amongst them.’

The situation steadily deteriorated. Dr Poole maintained his sense of humour, but the missionaries were a sore trial and the mental health of many of the foreigners showed signs of strain: ‘even Lady MacDonald depressed and wanted a phial of poison to do for herself…’ A Japanese diplomat was beheaded by Chinese soldiers, most communications with the outside world were cut - ‘Can [only] wire via Russia’ - and the local Chinese staff began to disappear. Fortunately, Poole’s servants stuck by him for a while, because on 12-13 May he was hit by one of his periodic bouts of fever. ‘Supplies are getting short and everyone is getting wearied. In all quarters of the city there are large fires. The mission compounds are being burned…This evening about 8 as I lay sick the alarm was sounded and everyone rushed to their posts…’

Events took another turn for the worse when Chinese Imperial Troops also began to open fire on the Legations’ defensive pickets. When an ultimatum was issued by the Chinese Government, ordering that all the foreign diplomats in Peking would have to leave for Tientsin within 24 hours, under escort, it was treated with scepticism. Francis Poole mused on an earlier instance of treachery perpetrated at Cawnpore ‘I also suspect that were we to leave here, we would fall into a Chinese trap, and history would repeat itself with a repetition of Nana Sahib’s massacre. So its war with China.’

On 20 June, the murder by the Chinese of the German Minister, Baron von Ketteler, prompted a decision that all foreign women and children and Chinese Christian converts be brought into shelter in either the Legation Quarter or the great Catholic cathedrals of Peking. Legation walls were loopholed, barricades erected and splinter-proof shelters constructed. With Sir Claude MacDonald, the British Minister, in de facto command of the defence, the historic 55-day Siege of Legations officially began. Dr Poole readied his improvised hospital inside the British Legation:
‘The international hospital was housed in the chancery of the British Legation. Through it in the course of the Siege passed 125 severely wounded men (of whom seventeen died), one severely wounded woman and forty cases of sickness - mostly enteric and dysentery - of whom two died. It was a grim place. Fortunately Dr Velde, a German surgeon and Dr Poole, the British Legation’s resident physician, were skilful as well as devoted. They were ably seconded by a sick-bay attendant from H.M.S. Orlando and an amateur nursing staff, to which the handsome Madame de Giers [wife of the Russian Minister] was an unexpectedly valuable recruit; Madame Pichon, on the other hand, Dr Poole found “a great nuisance.” Their resources were pitifully inadequate. The hospital had only four small iron bedsteads and seven camp-beds; most of the patients, whose numbers after the first two or three weeks never fell below sixty, lay on the floor, on mattresses stuffed with the straw in which wine-bottles had been packed. Antiseptics were scarce, there were hardly any anaesthetics and no X-ray apparatus. In the end, only one thermometer (it belonged to the widowed Baroness von Ketteler) was left unbroken. Bags of sawdust and powdered peat were used as dressings. The windows were sandbagged, and as the sun beat down on the low, overcrowded building the wounded suffered severely from the heat. There were no proper mosquito nets and the flies were a torment. They were bolder and more ubiquitous (it struck one patient) than the flies round a sweetmeat stall in an Indian bazaar, and every time a heavy gun was fired at night they rose from their roosting-places with so deafening a buzz that it woke the patients. The diet of pony-meat, varied with scraggy mutton until the sheep ran out, was monotonous and unsuitable for sick men; but the Chinese cooks showed as much versatility as their materials allowed, and “game”, which consisted of magpies and sparrows, was esteemed a special delicacy.’ (The Siege at Peking by Peter Fleming refers).

Another account by an American missionary-nurse who was eyewitness to events recalled her endless days and nights in the hospital, which another besieged person, Bertram Lenox Simpson, termed the ‘chamber of horrors’: ‘The supply of everything was short... The patients were all wounded men, the supply of absorbent dressings was very small, of rubber protectives there were almost none. When the mattresses and pillows were blood-soaked, there was nothing to do but wash them off as well as possible and use them again. The supply of proper sheets and pillowcases being inadequate, they were made up hastily out of any material that could be spared from the sandbags. Coarse, thin Chinese cotton covered one patient while his neighbour looked down on an expanse of slippery shining damask. As one patient remarked, “in this hospital it is every man for his own tablecloth.” Two napkins made a cover for a feather pillow. A beautiful embroidered linen pillowcase did duty on a pillow made of the straw bottle covers (the straw came from champagne bottles which, ironically, were in better supply than medicines)... At first the most approved surgical dressings were to be had, then bags of peat and finally, bags of sawdust served as dressings. At first bandages were used with a lavish hand, but before the close of the siege they had to be washed and do duty more than once. The small supply of the drugs most useful became pitifully small. The last bottle of chloroform was opened. No one can be impressed with the perishable nature of the hypodermic needle until he is obliged to use it many times every day with the knowledge that the last needle that can be procured from anywhere is in his hand.’

During the initial fighting, most of the buildings around the Legations were set alight and thereafter Chinese cannon gave the defenders some difficult moments. On 26 June Dr Poole, who wrote an average of almost a page of commentary each day, noted: ‘Sir Claude who was the directing head and the only man who kept his wits is laid up with dysentery… Lady MacDonald and most people very down in the mouth.’ Given his pre-existing heart condition, MacDonald’s dysentery might have proved fatal without Dr Poole’s expertise and treatment. The next day: ‘We have begun eating horseflesh.’ Between his many various medical and mental health support duties, Dr Poole also became involved in a V.C. action. Captain Halliday, R.M.L.I., led a sortie through a hole in the Legation wall to attack a group of Boxers, for which he won the V.C. Critically wounded during the fight, Halliday returned alone so as not to diminish further the numbers of men engaged with the enemy. Dr Poole dragged the wounded officer back through the hole, administered immediate medical assistance and had him carried to the hospital. Wordsworth’s brother Francis was also recognised for gallantry, being awarded the only D.S.O. for the Defence of Legations.
The Chinese bought up artillery to bombard the Legations with shrapnel and solid shot. There was a life-or-death struggle to prevent them from taking up commanding positions on the old wall of the Manchu City which completely overlooked all the Legations and a number of sorties were made beyond the defence lines aimed at destroying the enemy guns and throwing the attackers off balance. ‘20 coolies and soldiers captured by the French. 3 shot. 15 were bayonetted in cold blood by a corporal.’ Five days later, ‘Captain Strouts killed. He had been in command of the [Royal] marines here. An excellent chap, calm and collected and had done his work well… Strouts was hit in the thigh… had severe haemorrhage. Femur smashed, brought in almost moribund, gave CHCl3 [chloroform], tied artery forward, he didn’t rally and died in afternoon… Wray takes command, an excitable chap who does not have the confidence of his men, continually countermanding his orders, a poor substitute for Strouts. Francis made Adjutant. Sir Claude runs the whole show.’

On 13 August Poole had another bout of fever. The next day: ‘In afternoon heard a cheer, got up from my bed and hastily threw some clothes on. Saw Sikhs or Rajputs rushing into our Legation… We were relieved… Then with a Temp. of 104 degrees I went back to bed again. Had a bad go of fever… got worse each day, weaker and weaker.’ It turned out to be a prolonged attack-and he had to be medically evacuated to the coast. It was 4 September before he could write up his Journal, making ironic remarks about his obituary which had appeared in the British Medical Journal, and ‘that lying sheet the Daily Mail… Find myself quite a hero coming from Peking. But I don’t feel one in any way.’

Dr Poole was mentioned in Sir Claude MacDonald’s Despatch from Peking dated 20 September 1900, which the Marquess of Salisbury received on 22 November 1900: ‘My Lord, I have the honour to recommend the following officers and civilians who did exceptionally good service during the siege and attack on the Legation quarter from 20th June to the 14th August... One of the most important departments in the system of defence was the international hospital. The two doctors doing duty were Dr. Poole, Legation surgeon and Dr. Velde, of the German Legation. During the siege 166 cases passed through the hospital, 20 suffering from illness; the rest were all severely wounded. Owing to the devotion and skill of these two medical officers, 110 of the wounded were eventually discharged cured, and this, notwithstanding that towards the end of the siege, the resources of all the dispensaries having proved unequal to the strain, medical appliances, such as bandages and medicated wool, had to be replaced by makeshifts from cast-off linen, the wool being replaced by sterilised sawdust. Dr. Poole was indefatigable at his work, always sympathetic and cheerful. The wounded of all nationalities spoke most warmly of his devotion and skill. At the conclusion of the siege he was struck down with fever of a very dangerous description, and had to be invalided ... signed Claude M. MacDonald’ (Official Account of the Military Operations in China 1900-1901 by Major E. W. M. Norrie refers).

De profundis
The final section of the Journal is deeply poignant. Despite the wide recognition of Poole’s outstanding services - the French government offered him the Legion of Honour, the Russians and Germans were also planning to present awards, all of which he was unable to accept owing to Foreign Office regulations, the Graphic paid tribute to his ‘wonderful power’ of ‘making the best’ of conditions - Poole became increasingly depressed, exacerbated by jaundice, attacks of acute inflammation and rheumatism. His spirits made several rallies. He enjoyed visiting the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and the field hospitals of the various occupying forces in north China - ‘Most of the cases among the Indian troops are bronchitis and pneumonia, amongst the Americans venereal’ - even the elaborate ceremonies to mark the death of Queen Victoria (which he described in detail). He took two long and happy vacations in Japan, during which the quality of his handwriting improved noticeably, especially when he ‘eloped‘ with the pretty, fair and vivacious 25-year old Florentine, Mrs Hamilton. These rallies never lasted more than six weeks. Poole became thoroughly despondent each time he returned to China, especially after his great friends the MacDonalds were posted away from Peking: ‘A fortnight of black misery about which I don’t care to write.’ He deplored the boorish and arrogant behaviour of the German occupation troops towards Chinese people, the result of Kaiser Wilhelm’s notorious, infamous, bellicose and racist speech just before they sailed from Germany. Feeling unneeded in occupied Peking, Dr Poole longed for a posting to an administrative job back in Africa.

It was not to be. The coup de grace came in December 1901, when Dr Poole contracted typhoid, which caused his greatly lamented death in early January 1902.