Orders, Decorations and Medals

A Boer War C.B. group of five awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel F. A. B. Daly, Royal Army Medical Corps, Medical Officer to the Royal Irish Fusiliers at Talana who afterwards tended the British sick and wounded prisoners-of-war at Dundee

The Most Honourable Order of The Bath, C.B. (Military) Companion’s breast badge, gold and enamel, hallmarks for London unclear (possibly 1887), with gold swivel ring and straight bar suspension and gold buckle on ribbon; Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, dated reverse, no clasp (Surgeon, A.M. Dept.); Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 5 clasps, Talana, Tugela Heights, Orange Free State, Relief of Ladysmith, Transvaal (Lt. Col., C.B., R.A.M.C.), rank re-engraved; King’s South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps (Lt. Col., M.B., C.B., R.A.M.C.); Khedive’s Star 1882, rev. engraved, ‘Surgn. F. A. B. Daly, A.M.D., 1882’, Egypt and K.S.A. with some pitting, very fine and better (5) £2000-2500

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.

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Francis Augustus Bonner Daly was born in Dublin on 28 May 1855. Educated at Trinity College Dublin, he gained a B.A., M.B. and B.Ch. and was appointed a F.R.C.S.I. in 1887. Appointed a Surgeon, afterwards a Surgeon-Captain, in the Army Medical Department in 1881, he served in the Egypt campaign of 1882 and also served with the Sudan Frontier Force, 1885-86. He was promoted to Surgeon-Major in 1893. He served in the South African War of 1899-1902, and took part in the relief of Ladysmith. Daly served as Regimental Medical Officer to the Royal Irish Fusiliers at Talana and was ordered by the S.M.O. to remain at Dundee with the wounded who were unable to travel, thus becoming a prisoner-of-war of Boers. He was released in January 1900. In February 1901 he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and appointed the Principal Medical Officer of a Field Hospital with the local rank of Colonel. For his warttime services he was twice mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 30 March 1900, 4 February 1901) and awarded the C.B. (1901). He was placed on Retired Pay in 1909. Sold with copied research including a photocopy of Boer War Memories, Personal Experiences by Lieutenant-Colonel F. A. B. Daly, C.B. The booklet, composed of 56 pages, details his experiences as the medical officer, tending the British and Boer wounded at Dundee.