Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The fascinating M.B.E. and A.G.S. Nandi pair awarded to Mr P. H. Clarke, a civilian who was attached to the 3rd Kings African Rifles for the operations in Nandi country - at the time he was the only European trader at Kisumu on the shores of Lake Victoria, where he ran the company store for Boustead, Ridley & Co. In addition he was also the Town Clerk. When vessels were required to transport the Sudanese troops for the oncoming campaign, Clarke, on behalf of his employers supplied two dhows.

Clarke was no stranger to adventure - ‘he was of the pioneer school, the members of which went after business on their flat feet. When he first reached East Africa, ivory was the main item of trade, and again and again he trekked up to Uganda to bring down caravans of the precious commodity. That his camps were sometimes raided and his own life endangered did not divert him from his purpose’

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, M.B.E. (Civil) Member’s 1st type, breast badge, silver, hallmarks for London ‘1919’, in Garrard & Co. Ltd. case of issue; Africa General Service 1902-56, 1 clasp, Nandi 1905-06 (P. H. Clarke. Nandi F.F.) generally very fine or better (2) £800-£1,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from an Africa Collection.

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M.B.E. London Gazette 27 June 1919: Unofficial Member of the Legislative Council, East Africa Protectorate, for services on behalf of the British Red Cross Society and Order of St. John.

Percival Herbert Clarke and his colourful life in Africa is recorded in his obituary which appeared in East Africa, 1934:

‘The sudden death in Mombasa at the age of 62 of Mr Percival Herbert Clarke will not surprise those friends who knew the serious state of his health. For a long time his heart had caused more anxiety to others than he allowed it to cause him and the news which he received a month ago of the death in this country of the daughter to whom he was so deeply attached must certainly have loosened his hold on life. “PH” as he was known to all pre-War Kenyans, and to many of the post-War generation was born in Bermondsey on the last day of 1872, and educated at the Royal Merchant Seaman’s Orphanage... At the age of 18 he went to S. Africa, from which he returned a few years later. In 1898 he sailed for Mombasa to join the firm of Boustead, Ridley & Co. on the liquidation of which four years later he began trading on his own account in Kisumu - of which he used to recall with mock solemnity that he was its first Town Clerk (honorary). Then followed years of strenuous effort, the fruits of which he reinvested in his business. But he lost everything by shipwreck on Victoria Nyanza when returning from Uganda in a dhow laden with ivory and other goods. For a while he organised a gold prospecting syndicate, but when that failed he restarted trading in Kisumu.

In 1909 he amalgamated with Boustead Bros. and established his headquarters in Mombasa as principal of Boustead and Clarke, which has for many years been one of the best known names in EA commerce. “PH’s” record of public service was outstanding. At one time he was a member of no fewer than 17 different Commissions and Committees sitting in Kenya; and he was never a member merely in name, for, possessed of decided views and wide experience, he always contributed something to the subject under consideration. He had been an unofficial member of the Kenya War Council, the Kenya Legco and the Inter-Colonial Railway Advisory Council; he was the first President of the Association of Chambers of Commerce of EA, thrice President of the Mombasa Chamber of Commerce; and an original member of the Mombasa War Committee, the Mombasa Harbour Board, and the Mombasa District Committee....

He was of the pioneer school, the members of which went after business on their flat feet. When he first reached EA, ivory was the main item of trade, and again and again he trekked up to Uganda to bring down caravans of the precious commodity. That his camps were sometimes raided and his own life endangered did not divert him from his purpose....’

Clarke was one of a number of civilians attached to the 3rd Kings African Rifles as part of the Nandi Field Force for operations in Nandi country between October 1905 - July 1906. He was no stranger to conflict, and indeed had been attacked during his first year in East Africa:

‘December 1898. It was unfortunately necessary to send a punitive expedition into the Kivosoi location of the Kikuyu because of an unprovoked attack by the natives on Mr. P. Clarke of Messrs Boustead, Ridley & Co.’ (John Ainsworth and the Making of Kenya, by R. Maxon refers)

At the time of the Nandi operations Clarke was the only European trader at Kisumu on the shores of Lake Victoria, where he ran the company store. In addition he was also the Town Clerk. When vessels were required to transport the Sudanese troops for the oncoming campaign, Clarke on behalf of his employers supplied two dhows. He is also remembered in Kenya from Chartered Company to Crown Colony by C. W. Hobley:

‘While we were living in the old station of Kisumu many incidents occurred which stay in my mind... At Mumias I had a small piano which I had brought up the coast with great labour, part of the way by porters and part of the way by bullock cart. When I moved to Kisumu it was packed in its case, and there it lay in store unused. The representative of a well-known Mombasa firm, Mr P. H. Clarke, offered to buy it for resale in Uganda. I agreed, and left one day for Entebbe in a sailing dhow with the piano as cargo. About a week later he staggered into my office in an exhausted state and told me that a couple of days after leaving Kisumu they had encountered a bad storm on the lake. It was night and, after being buffeted for some hours, the dhow sank and the occupants were precipitated into the water.

Clarke swam about for a little and bumped up against the piano, which was floating, and presently the native skipper also held onto the case; the rest of the crew were never seen again. They hung on and floated about until daylight, when they discovered that they were a mile or two from an island. Eventually they reached it and landed from their novel craft. Native fishermen approached the island, but at first paddled away in terror at seeing a white man there. Eventually they returned, however, took off the castaways and landed them on the mainland. Here a friendly chief, Ugada Ndiek, gave them food and shelter, and as soon as Clarke had recovered strength, fitted him out with some old boots and a hat, and then he marched back to Kisumu. It was a trying ordeal for a European to be precipitated into the lake at the dead of night and to float about in the sun for the best part of the following day with no hat and clad in nothing but a thin suit of pyjamas. He suffered from shock for a week or two, but soon recovered.’

Sold with copied research.