Orders, Decorations and Medals

Diary of Lieutenant A. S. F. Davison, Adjutant 99th Regiment, who died at Etshowe, South Africa on 27 March 1879, comprising a printed 17 page diary, containing brief entries made by Davison between 19 October 1878 and 17 March 1879 whilst on campaign in South Africa, with bound in studio portrait of recipient in uniform, the whole bound in full gilt-tooled red leather, some wear to spine, but otherwise in very good condition and presumably one of a very limited number produced as a memorial volume for family members £200-250

The following is extracted from recipients obituary in The South African Campaign of 1879, by J.P. Mackinnon and S.H. Shadbolt: ‘... In December 1878, the 99th Regiment was ordered out to Natal, to join the force being prepared to act against the Zulus in the event of their refusing to comply with the terms of Sir Bartle Frere’s ultimatum. Disembarking at Durban, Lieutenant Davison proceeded with the regiment to the Lower Tugela Drift, and took part in the subsequent advance of Colonel Pearson’s Column, in January 1879, into the enemy’s country. The last letter received from him by his family was one written in excellent spirits from Cape Town, bearing date 3rd January. He was present at the battle of Inyezane on the morning of the 22nd, and at the subsequent occupation of Etshowe. In the protracted waiting-time which succeeded the arrival of the column at that pposition, throughout the wearisome routine which fell to the lot of the beleaguered force, he distinguished himself by the gaiety of his spirits and by his thoughtfulness for others. The constant exposure to which the garrison was subjected proved, however, too much for his strength, and early in March he was stricken with typhoid fever; from the first days of his illness he continued to grow weaker and weaker, and eventually died just a week before the besieged garrison was relieved.

In a letter to his father, Captain Davison, bearing date April the 10th 1879, Colonel Welman wrote: “In your son we have lost a brave and skilful officer. He was a general favourite in the regiment.”