Auction Catalogue

22 September 2006

Starting at 11:30 AM

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Orders, Decorations and Medals

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

Lot

№ 567

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22 September 2006

Hammer Price:
£680

Ashantee 1873-74, no clasp (Col. Foster Foster, Magistrate, Cape Coast Castle, 73-74) edge nicks, otherwise good very fine and a rare award to a Special Service Officer £600-800

Colonel Foster arrested the notorious Ashantee chief, Akyempon, in October 1872, when Inspector-General of Armed Police, an incident to which Brackenbury refers in his Narrative of the Ashantee War:

‘It was at the same time decided to send back the notorious Ashanti chief Akyempon to Coomassie, paying his expenses and giving him safe conduct. He had been found to be fomenting stife in Apollonia between the Kings Blay and Amikie, and inciting the Dutch settlements in the neighbourhood to disaffection to the English; he had therefore been seized there in October 1872 by Colonel Foster, inspector-general of armed police, under orders of the Administrator, Mr. Salmon, and conveyed to Cape Coast Castle, where he was lodged in prison. He left the Cape Coast on the 12th December, was escorted to Prahsu by armed police, and conveyed across the frontier on Christmas day. The Abrahs stopped him at Darman, and the Assins refused to let him pass; but, on the remonstrance of the Governor, he was allowed to proceed on his journey. He did not recive any ill treatment; and the assertion that his being plundered and ill treated on the road was a cause of the Ashanti invasion, is sufficiently proved false by the fact that the enemy’s troops had actually marched to invade the Protectorate before he left Cape Castle.’

A summary of Foster’s interesting and varied career is contained in
The Colonial Office List of 1875:

‘FOSTER, Colonel Foster - Assistant-Magistrate, Gold Coast, educated Sandhurst; entered the Army 1848; served with the Austrian Army through the campaigns in Italy of 1848, 1849 and 1850; served throughout the Russian campaign in the Crimea and was Assistant Quarter-Master General for the Turkish Forces in the Crimea. In January 1856 was promoted to the rank of Major ; and commanded the 12th Battalion Military Train; and was specially employed under the command of Colonel Weatherall in the re-organistation of the Transport Service in the Crimea. In 1860 proceeded to British Columbia to take up military grant of land. In 1862 at the desire of the Imperial Government, with the loyal aid of the inhabitants of the colony, organised a Volunteer Rifle Corps and a company of Artillery, which were equipped and armed by Her Majesty's Government; was appointed to the command of this force as Colonel Commandant; was Magistrate and Gold Commissioner; in November 1870, was appointed Assistant Magistrate and Inspector of Police, Gold Coast; Acting Colonial Secretary and Collector of Customs, 1872 and 1874.’

Note: As a civilian Foster does not appear on the Ashantee Medal roll, his award having been issued via the Colonial Office.