Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Joseph Chamberlain, Visit to South Africa 1903, by J. Fray, obv. bust of Chamberlain wearing a monocle, facing; rev. Peace standing, her arm outstretched towards the sun, inscribed, ‘Unity’, with H.M.S. Good Hope below; a cartouche below inscribed, ‘I go to Africa with the most earnest desire to bring together the People into one great African Nation under the British Flag’, 50mm., silver, ref. Eimer 1876, good very fine £40-50

Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914), statesman, father of the future Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain. He was the first Secretary of State for the Colonies to visit an overseas colony on political matters. Travelling on the armoured cruiser Good Hope, he arrived in Durban in December 1902. Sold with a copy of The Garden Party, an article by John Welch, appearing in the Journal of the Orders and Medals Research Society, March 2005. The article relates to a letter written by Rev. William Drury who attended a Garden Party in which Chamberlain and many of the personages form both sides of the Boer war were present.