Orders, Decorations and Medals

The K.C.B., C.M.G. group of five awarded to Surgeon General Sir John Andrews Woolfreys, M.D., Army Medical Department, Principal Medical Officer during the Ashantee and Zulu Wars

The Most Honourable Order of The Bath, K.C.B. (Military) Knight Commander’s set of insignia, neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel; breast star, silver, silver-gilt and enamel, in Garrard, London case of issue; The Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, C.M.G., Companion’s breast badge, gold and enamel, with gold swivel ring and straight bar suspension and gold buckle on ribbon; Coronation 1902, silver; Ashantee 1873-74, 1 clasp, Coomassie (Dy. Surgn. Genl., M.D., 1873-4); South Africa 1877-79, 1 clasp, 1877-8-9 (Surgn. Genl., M.D., C.B., C.M.G., A.M.D.), last four mounted for display, good very fine and better (6) £3500-4000

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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John Andrews Woolfreys was born in Salisbury on 14 June 1823 and qualified as a M.D. at St. Andrews in 1859. He entered the Army as an Assistant Surgeon in the 71st Foot in 1847, transferring to the Royal Canadian Rifle Regiment in 1850 and the 10th Foot in 1852. He was appointed a Staff Surgeon 2nd Class in 1855 and Staff Surgeon-Major in 1867. Woolfreys served in the second phase of the Ashantee War of 1873-74 as Principal Medical Officer, for which he received special promotion to Deputy Surgeon General in April 1874. He again served as Principal Medical Officer at the Cape in the Galeka and Gaika Rebellions, 1877-78, and again in Natal during the Sekukuni and Zulu wars, 1878-79. For his services in the Zulu War he was awarded the C.B. in 1879; in the following year he was awarded the C.M.G. Promoted to Surgeon General in 1880, he was placed on Half Pay in 1883. Woolfreys was appointed Honorary Physician to Queen Victoria in 1899 and was duly appointed Honorary Physician to King Edward VII in 1902 and George V in 1911. He was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1902. Sir John Woolfreys died at Wells, Somerset on 12 January 1912.