Auction Catalogue

17 September 2004

Starting at 11:00 AM

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Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part I)

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

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Lot

№ 733

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17 September 2004

Hammer Price:
£11,000

The Rorke’s Drift award to Private George Deacon, 2/24th Foot, who deserted shortly afterwards and did not claim his medal until after the Great War

South Africa 1877-79
, 1 clasp, 1877-8-9 (1467 Pte. G. Deacon, 2/24 Foot) an officially impressed later issue claimed in 1920, some engraved graffiti after the impressed naming has been mostly erased but appears to read ‘Rorke’s Drift’, otherwise nearly extremely fine £3000-4000

George Deacon (alias George D. Power) was born at Bank, Hampshire, and attested for 25 Brigade at Chatham on 10 November 1877, aged 18 or 19 years. Posted to the 2nd Battalion, 24th Foot, he went immediately to South Africa. He was confined in cells from 12th to 18th March 1878. At the defence of Rorke’s Drift he served in “B” Company, and is mentioned in an account by Private Frederick Hitch, V.C., who incorrectly names him as ‘Deakin’. It is towards the end of the action, after Hitch had been wounded and Lieutenant Bromhead was carefully rationing the ammunition which was then running very low:

‘Deakin, a comrade, said to me as I was leaning back against the biscuit boxes, “Fred, when it comes to the last shall I shoot you? I declined. “No, they have very nearly done for me and they can finish me right out when it comes to the last.” I don’t remember much after that.’

George Deacon was clearly in the thick of the fighting right to the last. His presence is further confirmed on the Chard and Bourne rolls. Unfortunately he was again confined to cells from 11th to 24th February 1879, for failing to obey an order, and eventually deserted at Pietermaritzburg on 9 September 1879. As a deserter he was not issued with a medal and the rolls are marked as such. However, he obviously made a claim for a medal sometime after the Great War and this was approved, according to the following annotation on the medal roll: ‘Roll searched 6/1/1920, authority 19/Inf/239 and 2177.’

George Deacon, now in his early sixties, finally got his medal for his part in the defence of Rorke’s Drift over 40 years earlier. He may have been a bad boy in the eyes of the army but to his comrades at Rorke’s Drift he would have been as much a hero as any of them.