Beschreibung:

The Richard Magor Collection of Medals Relating to India and Africa, and other Fine Awards A superb Great War Brigade Commander’s C.B., C.M.G., Battalion Commander’s D.S.O. group of seven awarded to Brigadier-General C. E. Heathcote, King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, who was attached to the West African Frontier Force between 1904-09, when he was a key player in the extraordinary Anglo-German West Africa operations of 1908, and who in the Great War commanded several units of the K.O.Y.L.I., in addition to the 4th Lincolnshires and 7th Leicestershires: his D.S.O. undoubtedly reflected his gallant services in 1914, when he was dangerously wounded at Messines The Most Honourable Order of The Bath, C.B. (Military), Companion’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel; The Order of St. Michael and St. George, C.M.G., neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel; Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel; Africa General Service 1902-56, 2 clasps, S. Nigeria 1905-06, West Africa 1908 (Capt., S.N. Regt.); 1914 Star, with clasp (Major, Yorks. L.I.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oakleaf (Brig. Gen.) enamel work slightly chipped in places and minor contact marks, generally good very fine (7) £1800-2200 Footnote C.B. London Gazette 3 June 1919: ‘For valuable services rendered in connection with military operations in France and Flanders.’ C.M.G. London Gazette 11 April 1918: ‘For distinguished services in connection with the military operations culminating in the capture of Jerusalem.’ D.S.O. London Gazette 18 February 1915. Mention in Despatches London Gazette 18 September 1906 (Southern Nigeria); 13 March 1908 (Southern Nigeria); 21 December 1909 (Southern Nigeria); 19 October 1914; 17 February 1915; 15 June 1916; 7 October 1918; 20 December 1918 and 3 July 1919. Charles Edensor Heathcote was born in April 1875 and was educated at Bedford School. Commissioned into the Yorkshire Light Infantry in March 1894, he was advanced to Lieutenant in January 1898 and to Captain in April 1900. Then following a stint as ‘Superintendent of Gymnasia’ on Malta during the South African War, Heathcote transferred, on attachment, in June 1904, to the West African Frontier Force. His first operational outing in Southern Nigeria was in the Onitsha Hinterland Expedition of 1904-05, but it was for his services in the Bende-Onitsha Hinterland Expedition in the following year that he earned the Africa General Service with ‘S. Nigeria 1905-06’ clasp, and his first mention in despatches. Two columns, one of them commanded by Brevet Major (afterwards Marshal of the Royal Air Force) J. M. “Boom” Trenchard, joined forces at the Imo River, to avenge the murder of Dr. Stewart, he whose ‘body was cut up into little pieces and distributed around for consumption as a fetish.’ As stated in Magor, there was a lot of severe fighting, so we may be sure Heathcote’s first ‘mention’ was a well-merited one. And for like services in another Southern Nigerian enterprise in 1906, he notched up his second ‘mention’. But the highlight of Heathcote’s African sojourn, in his capacity as a commander of the Anglo-German Boundary Commission escort, made up of men of the 1st Southern Nigeria Rifles, was his participation in the West Africa operations of 1908. To a certain extent these have already been alluded to in the footnotes for Dr. G. Beatty’s similar Medal and clasp entitlement, one of just 200-odd issued, some of them, quite uniquely, to German servicemen (see Lot 369). But as designated C.O. of the British military element in this remarkable example of Anglo-German co-operation, it would be fitting to turn to Magor for a greater account of Heathcote’s part in the drama: ‘Captain Heathcote spent the 23rd [of December 1908] in reconnaissance awaiting Oberleutnant von Stephani and issued his orders for attacking the Gaya that evening, the information paragraph of which read: ‘The enemy consisting of fighting men or the whole of the Sonkwala and their friends from neigh