Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine C.B. group of four awarded to Colonel W. Adye, Royal Irish Rifles, who was recommended for the V.C. in the Second Afghan War and was taken P.O.W. at Nicholson’s Nek in the Boer War - ‘the most humiliating day in British military history since Majuba’

The Most Honourable Order of The Bath, C.B. (Military) Companion’s breast badge, silver-gilt and enamels, complete with swivel-ring suspension and riband buckle; Afghanistan 1878-80, 1 clasp, Kandahar (Lt., Trans. Dep.); Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 1 clasp, Natal (Major, R. Irish Rifles); Coronation 1902, good very fine and better (4)
£1800-2200

Walter Adye was born in November 1858, the son of Major-General Goodson Adye of Milverton, Warwick, and was educated at Leamington College and Sandhurst. Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 83rd Regiment (The Royal Irish Rifles) in January 1878, he was advanced to Lieutenant at the end of the same year, and quickly witnessed active service in the Second Afghan War.

Adye was, in fact, detached for special duties, and ‘served throughout the second campaign, firstly as Transport Officer on the Kandahar line, having charge, for six months, of the stations of Dozan and Darwaza in the Boland Pass, and afterwards as Brigade Transport Officer, 1st Division, Kandahar F.F., at Kandahar. Performed garrison duty throughout the siege. During the retirement of troops from the sortie to Deh Khwaja distinguished himself by carrying, under a heavy fire, two of the wounded to places of safety. Was present in the reconnaissance of 31 August 1880, and the battle of Kandahar. Proceeded to India in November 1880, to rejoin his regiment prior to embarkation for Natal. Recommended by H.E. the Commander-in-Chief, and by General Primrose, for the Victoria Cross’ (Shadbolt refers): Adye actually descended by a rope ladder from the Kabul Gate when sallying out to rescue the second man.

Having witnessed further active service - back with his regiment - in the First Boer War 1881, Adye was advanced to Captain in November 1884 and served as Adjutant of the Auxiliary Forces 1885-1890. Further promotion followed in March 1893, with his appointment as Major, and by the eve of the Boer War he was serving as D.A.A.G. to the Army.

He subsequently joined Sir George White’s staff out in Natal at the commencement of hostilities, and quickly made his mark with his senior, being described by him as a ‘capital officer’ who knew ‘every inch fo the ground’, the latter accolade presumably on the back of his earlier experiences in the First Boer War 1881. Be that as it may, and having witnessed the costly affair at Lombard’s Kop, Adye was instrumental in persuading White to let him take a column to Nicholson’s Nek to protect the west flank of the infantry assigned the storming of Pepworth, and to block off the enemy’s line of retreat. In the event, the column was commanded by Adye’s regimental C.O., Lieutenant-Colonel Carleton, which from a career point of view was probably as well, for the whole met with disaster:

‘ ... From earliest daybreak Boer scouts were reconnoitring, and about 8 o’clock mounted Boers could be seen galloping in small groups to the cover at the reverse of the hill on the west. Later two strong parties of mounted men took position on the far side of the two hills commanding the kopje from the west. About 9 o’clock these two parties had crowned the hills and opened a heavy fire at short ranges right down upon the plateau. Our men made a plucky attempt to return this fire, but it was impossible; they were under a cross-fire from two directions, flank and rear. The two companies of Gloucesters holding the self-contained ridge were driven from their shelter, and as they crossed the open on the lower plateau were terribly mauled, the men falling in groups.




The Boers on the west had not yet declared themselves, but about 200 marksmen climbed to the position which the two companies of Gloucesters had just vacated. These men absolutely raked the plateau, and it was then that the men were ordered to take cover on the steep reverse of the kopje. As soon as the enemy realised this move, the men on the western hill teemed on to the summit and opened upon our men as they lay on the slope. They were absolutely hemmed in, and what had commenced as a skirmish seemed about to become a butchery. The grim order was passed round - “Faugh-a-Ballaghs, fix your bayonets and die like men!” There was the clatter of steel, the moment of suspense, and then the “Cease Fire” sounded. Again and again it sounded, but the Irish Fusiliers were loth to accept the call, and continued firing for many minutes. Then it was unconditional surrender and the men laid down their arms ... ’ (The Transvaal War refers).

Adye was one of 954 officers and men to be taken P.O.W. that day, a bitter blow to Sir George White, a day that one famous historian has described as ‘the most humiliating in British military history since Majuba’: it is said that the officers of the Royal Irish Rifles were ‘so exasperated at the exhibition of the white flag that they set to work and smashed their swords rather than give them up’.

Adye was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 8 February 1901 refers) and, on being released, served as D.A.A.G. at Army H.Q. from July 1900 until February 1904. He was advanced to Lieutenant-Colonel in the latter year, when he was appointed a General Staff Officer, and thence to substantive Colonel in October 1907. Appointed C.B. in 1909, he served briefly as Deputy Assistant Inspector of Remounts, Eastern Command, from 1914 until his death in September 1915.