Special Collections

Sold on 10 May 2017

1 part

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A Fine Collection of Medals Relating to Rhodesia and South Africa

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Lot

№ 329

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10 May 2017

Hammer Price:
£500

British South Africa Company Medal 1890-97, reverse Rhodesia 1896 (Troopr. + H. F. Phipps S.R.) good very fine and rare £500-600

10 medals issued to the Salisbury Rifle Corps of the Chishawasha Garrison. The three Fathers and four Brothers of the Chishawasha Jesuit Mission also received medals.

In June 1896 the Mashona Uprising broke out, and despite the missionaries being warned, they decided they could defend their property and themselves.
The Zambesi Mission Record gives the following:

‘In October, 1897, Chishawasa was at a critical period of its career. Some fifteen or sixteen months before, the Fathers and the Brothers at the station were attacked by their own natives, had to seek refuge in an upper storey of their premises and sustain a siege at the hands of those who would have murdered them without mercy, but whose efforts were fortunately frustrated. Their cattle were all driven off; they themselves were rescued by a patrol sent from Salisbury, where they went through the perilous and inconvenient experiences of the days of the laager. Meanwhile, Chisawasha was left unprotected for the natives to do with as they liked. Fortunately they spared the buildings, though it would have been easy to have fired them, as at the time nearly all the roofs were of thatch.

When, after the weary days of the laager, the Fathers and Brothers came back to their home the prospects were black indeed.’

The Jesuits had in fact spent five weeks in Salisbury, where they suffered some abuse for being friends of the Mashona. The first relief party, led by Captain St. Hill, had been forced to turn back on the outskirts of what is now the suburb of Highlands, but early on 25th June, Captain Taylor of the Natal Troop, with 43 men and a Maxim gun reached Chishawasha Mission. The mission had been evacuated within half an hour.