Orders, Decorations and Medals

The extremely fine and well documented Great War C.M.G., Uganda D.S.O. group of eleven awarded to Colonel J. D. Ferguson, F.R.G.S., Royal Army Medical Corps

The Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, C.M.G., Companion’s neck badge conversion from a breast badge, silver-gilt and enamel, with neck cravat, in case; Distinguished Service Order, V.R., silver-gilt and enamel, complete with top bar; East and Central Africa 1897-99, 2 clasps, Lubwa’s, Uganda 1897-98 (Sur. Capt., A.M.S.), note initials ‘L. D.’; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Relief of Kimberley, Paardeberg, Driefontein (Capt., D.S.O., R.A.M.C.); King’s South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps (Maj., D.S.O., R.A.M.C.); Africa General Service 1902-56, 2 clasps, Somaliland 1902-04, Jidballi (Major, R.A.M.C.); 1914-15 Star (Lt. Col., D.S.O., R.A.M.C.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Col.); Coronation 1911, unnamed, except for first mounted as worn, in red leather case; Zanzibar, Order of the Brilliant Star of Zanzibar, 3rd Class neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel with gold and enamel centre, slight enamel damage, with neck cravat, in case of issue, good very fine (11) £8000-10000

C.M.G. London Gazette 1 January 1917. ‘Lt.-Col. (temp. Col.), D.S.O., R.A.M.C.’

D.S.O. London Gazette 24 January 1899. ‘In recognition of services during the recent operations in Uganda’.

M.I.D. London Gazette 15 June 1916, 4 January 1917, 5 June 1919.

Order of the Brilliant Star 19 June 1899. ‘For distinguished bravery before the enemy under fire whilst in command of Zanzibar troops lent by His Highness for Lieutenant Colonel Macdonald’s Expedition to British East Africa and Uganda’.

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals to the Medical Services formed by Colonel D.G.B. Riddick.

View
Collection

John David Ferguson was born on 24 October 1866, the son of David Ferguson of Shanagour, Croagh, Co. Limerick and Upper Pembroke Street, Dublin. After qualifying as a L.R.C.P.I. and L.R.C.S.I. in 1887, he entered the Army Medical Service as a Surgeon Captain in July 1890. During his early years he served in the West Indies. Returning to England he was selected in early 1897 to accompany the experienced Lieutenant-Colonel R. R. L. Macdonald, R.E., on the exploratory Juba Expedition which was to obtain more accurate information on the country north of the Uganda Protectorate and to see if the French and Belgians were encroaching on the Nile, this being considered a British preserve.

Macdonald split his expedition into three commands, Ferguson being detailed to accompany Captain Austin’s Column to survey Lake Rudolf. It was at this time that some of the Sudanese troops employed by the expedition deserted, marched to Fort Lubwas on Lake Victoria, where they were joined by the disaffected garrison and members of the Buganda tribe. Macdonald advanced to Lubwas, fought an inconclusive action with the rebels nearby, who then returned to the fort and slaughtered their former British officers they were holding captive. Macdonald invested the fort but the more numerous occupants made frequent sallies. In one of these, Macdonald records the arrival of Captain Ferguson and men from Austin’s column. ‘On the 11th instant (December 1897) Captain Harrison again took out a covering party to protect the Waganda (a friendly tribe) whilst completing the cutting of the shambas on our right front. The mutineers, rendered desperate by seeing their main food supply being destroyed, made furious attack on our front and left. As the ground was very overgrown the fighting was at very close quarters. The enemy were everywhere repulsed ... but unfortunately our loss was heavy ... Surgeon Captain Ferguson arrived with fifty men and thirty-five boxes of ammunition in time to assist Surgeon Captain MacLouglin in attending the wounded’.

Of his services at Lubwas, Macdonald was later to report that Ferguson, ‘did excellent work in the advanced work at Lubwa’s (sic), and was present in several skirmishes.’ At length the mutineers abandoned Lubwas and moved by launch and canoe up the Nile towards Mruli. Moving in pursuit with Macdonald’s H.Q. party, Ferguson rendered value help, both military and medical in the action at Kijembo, 18 February 1898. Macdonald, in his despatch said of him,

‘In addition to the other valuable services rendered by this officer, I would specially mention his distinguished gallantry at Kijembo on the 18th February, 1898. While engaged in carrying out an operation (securing an artery), the interruption of which would have meant death to the patient, he found himself the special mark of the enemy’s bullets, and had the water-bottle broken at his side; but he completed the operation with the greatest coolness, and then had his patient carried to a more sheltered position.’

Later in the year Ferguson was appointed Austin’s second-in-command and set out again for Lake Rudolf to punish those tribes who had risen in support of the mutineers. Reaching the lake, Ferguson was honoured by having a bay named after him. Towards the end of the expedition, in his report dated ‘Savi, Mount Elgon, November 16, 1898’, Captain Austin said of him, ‘Captain Ferguson’s work will be thoroughly appreciated when I state that from the time we left Ngaboto until our return we only lost one man through death by sickness. Owing to prompt and effective measures he took to prevent the spread of smallpox, when a case appeared in the caravan shortly after leaving Mrule, no further cases occurred, and the man affected is now well and strong ... I need not refer to the horrors of an epidemic of smallpox in a caravan ... to emphasize the importance of his precautions and the value of his services as Medical Officer to the column.’

Following his return to England, Ferguson, ‘an enthusiastic student of animal life’, who during his tour in Africa, bagged an elephant sporting nine foot long, 100 lb-plus tusks, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Zoological Society. For his immense services in Uganda, he was awarded the D.S.O., receiving it from the hands of the Queen at Windsor Castle on 30 November 1899.

He was then posted to South Africa and the Boer War. There, he was present at the relief of Kimberley, operations in the Orange Free State, February-May 1900, including operations at Paardeberg and actions at Poplar Grove and Driefontein. Further service in the Orange Free State and Cape Colony followed, being promoted to Major in July 1902. In 1903, he returned to East Africa, serving in Somaliland and taking part in the action at Jidballi. He was an Instructor at the R.A.M.C. School of Instruction, August 1905-June 1909 and was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1912. Ferguson served in the Great War as Assistant Director of Medical Services, 47th Division, B.E.F. in France from 19 August 1915 to 31 May 1917. He attained the rank of Colonel on 30 May 1917 and received the C.M.G. that same year. During July-December 1917 he served in Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria and the Islands of the Aegean; during February-October 1918 he served in Mesopotamia. None the worse for the privations of Africa and the Great War, Colonel Ferguson died in his 95th year on 5 October 1961.

Sold with a quantity of original material including: the recipient’s C.M.G. bestowal document, statutes and accompanying letter in original envelope; commission documents (3) of appointment to Assistant Surgeon, 1858, Surgeon Major, 1873 and Brigade Surgeon, 1884; Order of the Brilliant Star of Zanzibar award and permission to wear documents, 1899; Ypres League of Officers’ Certificate, named to ‘Col. J. D. Ferguson, D.S.O., 47th Divn. (2 London) A.D.M.S.’; photograph of the recipient in uniform wearing medals; a ‘Portfolio of Attestations’, containing the recipient’s medical diplomas, notification of the award of the D.S.O., numerous papers, letters, photographs, newspaper extracts etc; the paper, Recent Events in the Uganda Protectorate, presented to both Houses of Parliament, February 1898; The Geographical Journal (3), August 1899; April 1932; August 1935, and The World Wide Magazine, November 1899 - containing articles on the ‘Macdonald Expedition’;

See lot 1169 for the recipient’s miniature dress medals.