Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An important Uganda 1897-98 operations C.M.G. group of three awarded to Dr. R. U. Moffat, Principal Medical Officer of the Protectorate

The Order of St. Michael and St. George, C.M.G., neck badge, converted from breast wear, silver-gilt and enamels; Central Africa 1891-98, no clasp, ring suspension (R. U. Moffat, M.D.), refixed suspension claw / ring and contemporary re-engraved naming in large capitals; East and Central Africa 1897-99, 1 clasp, Uganda 1897-98 (Dr. R. U. Moffat, C.M.G.) the first badly chipped and damaged in places, the campaign medals nearly extremely fine (3) £1200-1500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Richard Magor Collection of Medals Relating to India and Africa, and other Fine Awards.

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C.M.G. London Gazette 10 January 1899: ‘For services during the recent Uganda mutiny.’

Robert Unwin Moffat was born at Kuruman in South Africa in 1866, the third son of the Rev. John Smith Moffat, C.M.G., himself a celebrated missionary who witnessed much of the early settlement of Matabeleland. Young Robert was educated at St. Andrews College, Grahamstown and at Edinburgh University, where he qualified as a Bachelor of Medicine and Master of Surgery in 1890.

In 1891, he entered the British East Africa Company’s service and quickly found active employment when he accompanied Sir Gerald Portal’s expedition to Uganda in 1893. Moffat is frequently mentioned in memoirs of the period, not least Soldiering and Surveying in British East Africa 1891-94, by Major J. R. L. MacDonald, R.E., and in Major Herbert Austin’s With MacDonald in Uganda, a Narrative Account of the Uganda Mutiny and MacDonald Expedition in the Uganda Protectorate and the Territories to the North. Obviously, too, as one of a handful of Doctors then in the Company’s service, he receives equally frequent mention in official correspondence and despatches of the period. And it quickly emerges from these sources that his brief extended beyond that of a man of medicine, leading, as he did, Company forces into action, and taking the surrender of an African Chief.

Having assisted Colonel Frances Rhodes with his report on the route between Mombasa and Uganda in early 1893, the Colonel reported that ‘Dr. Moffat is present in Kampala and has a good deal of experience with the Kibwesi Industrial Mission. He is most anxious to see one started in Uganda. I should suggest a start being made as soon as possible, even if only a small one.’

For his own part, in April 1893, Moffat submitted a paper entitled Health Report of the Uganda Commission Caravan, in which he reveals some fascinating statistics, the whole gleaned from his extensive campaigning. He also felt bound to report that ‘Personally I had several attacks of fever, which at Kikuyu was complicated by haematuria, lasting five days. This I attributed to congestion of the kidneys, due to a chill.’

But at this juncture the Selim Bey troubles intervened, Moffat quickly being attached to Sir Gerald Portal’s force at Kampala. By June, he was busy treating the first casualties, from the fight at Rubaga, his senior favourably reporting on the ‘unwearying care’ of Dr. Moffat, who ‘was occupied till after dark dressing wounds and performing operations on the more serious cases.’ Later that month he accompanied Portal on his march to Port Alice.

Then in November, with the outbreak of the Unyoro Rebellion, and as part of Colonel H. E. Colvile’s force, he crossed the swollen waters of the Kafu River, in pursuit of the rebel leader Kabarega, having charge of ‘two loads of medicines and surgical appliances, and four loads of medical comforts, and a proportion of stretchers.’ By the end of the month, both Colvile and Moffat were suffering from ‘jigger sores’ and fever. In his memoir The Land of the Nile Springs, Colvile also mentions the effects of the numerous camp fires:

‘By eight in the evening we couldn’t even see our neighbours’ fires only a few yards off and it was not until nine or ten in the morning that the sun began to show himself, poached-egg like through the vale of smoke. One curious and unpleasant effect of this was an epidemic of severe catarrah. Moffat said it was only irritation of the mucous membrane but we certainly sneezed and coughed ...’

Both eventually recovered, and in the new year they journeyed to Kibiro to assess the potential of setting up a station there. One of Moffat’s patients at this time included a smallpox case, and in the following month he was left in charge of Kitanwa, ‘with about ninety sick and four sections of Swahilis’, while his new C.O., MacDonald of the Royal Engineers, set off on patrol work. Fortunately, Major E. R. Owen of the Lancashire Fusiliers and a boat party arrived with reinforcements a few days later, the former detailing Moffat to accompany him on an armed patrol to Hoima. Although somewhat difficult to ascertain from contemporary accounts, it was about this time that Moffat was involved in a hot little engagement with the enemy. Major A. B. Thruston’s African Incidents takes up the story:



‘Shortly afterwards, Dr. Moffat, while returning from the Kafu River with the caravan, bringing cloth from Uganda for payment of the troops, was attacked by a large number of the enemy. After a good fight, in which some of his men were wounded, he drove them off with considerable loss. This party had been detached from a force that was mobilised on a steep little mountain, situated a few miles off the Unganda road, called Masaja Makuro. This mountain is a natural stronghold; it has always been a refuge for the Unyoro during the Waganda invasions, and until I afterwards captured it our caravans continued to suffer a considerable amount of interference.’

In March 1894, Colonel Colvile submitted his final despatch for the Unyoro Expedition, citing in detail the achievements of his multi-talented Medical Officer:

‘Dr. Moffat served as Surgeon to the force, and I cannot speak too highly of the skilful and self-sacrificing manner in which he, single-handed, performed his arduous duties. Himself too ill to walk at the commencement of the campaign, he never for a moment relaxed his attention to the daily increasing roll of sick. He was always up the first in the morning to attend the sick; while marching with the rear guard he was, with the exception of Mr. Purkiss, always last into camp; yet he was ever as ready to travel any distance to attend to a patient as when required to perform the duties of a regimental officer, in addition to those of his profession.’

But the good Doctor’s present African adventures were not yet over, for on 18 April 1894, at Unjare, he signed a formal treaty with the Chief Kavalli:



‘Treaty made at Injare, on the Albert Lake, in Kavalli’s country, this 18th day of April, in the year 1894, between Robert Unwin Moffat, M.B., C.M., for and on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India, & c., her heirs and successors, on the one part, and the Undersigned, Chief Kavalli, for his heirs and successors, on the other part.

I, the undersigned, Chief Kavalli, do, in the presence of the Headmen and people assembled at this place, hereby promise:

1. That there shall be peace between the subjects of the Queen of England and Kavalli’s subjects.

2. That British subjects shall have free access to all parts of the country under jurisdiction of Kavalli, and shall have the right to build houses and possess property according to the laws in force in this country; that they shall have full liberty to carry on such trade or manufacture as may be approved by Her Majesty; and should any difference arise between the aforesaid British subjects and the subjects of the said Kavalli as to the duties or customs to be paid to Kavalli, the said Chief, or the Headmen of the towns in Kavalli’s country, by such British subjects, or as to any other matter, that the dispute shall be referred to a duly authorized Representative of Her Majesty, whose decision in the matter shall be binding and final; and that Kavalli will not extend the rights thus guaranteed to British subjects to any other persons without the knowledge and consent of such Representative.

3. That Kavalli, the said Chief, will at no time whatever cede any of his territory to any other Power, or enter into any Agreement, Treaty, or Arrangement with any foreign Government except through and with consent of the Government of Her Majesty the Queen of England, & c.

Done at Injare, this 18th day of April 1894.

Signed in the presence of:

R. U. Moffat
Kavalli, Chief, his x mark’



In his memoir African Incidents, Major A. B. Thruston explains how Moffat came to represent the Queen:

‘Kavalli was an important personage, and it was desirable that he should perform this little comedy [sign a treaty] with us before he should do so with the Belgians, and as I was unselfish enough not to wish to deprive Moffat of the delights of a boating trip, I deputed him to go in my stead to the south end of the lake, where Kavalli has his village to which, if sent for, he would come to meet him. Moffat’s experiences were much the same as mine; he, too, had his daily storms and drenchings, and had been nearly upset by the hippopotami. Until one is used to them, there is a good deal trying to the nerves in these voyages ...’







More alarmingly, some months after the treaty had been signed, and Thruston had returned from another boat trip:

‘Moffat reported that he had noticed a certain amount of unrest amongst the people along the roads, and that he had seen parties of Unyoro moving along the hills. An old man of sinister appearance, clothed in a bizarre costume of skins and feathers, with a leather bag full of old teeth and bones, and a horn decorated with rude ornamentation, had been seen prowling about near the fort, and had been recognised as a wizard. A slaughtered bullock and a goat, as well as other articles of witchcraft, had been seen on the road; doubtless these things portended to something, but I did not then take much heed ...’

Inevitably, perhaps, Moffat’s report had indeed been significant, and Thruston lived to rue the day he took no action. On the morning of 27 August 1894, a large body of enemy tribesmen assembled to attack the fort, and leaving Moffat there in charge of the sick, with a half-company of Zanzibaris for company, Thruston departed to do battle with his remaining men. And, as it transpired, he had a very hard two-hour fight, his ammunition being reduced to worryingly low levels.

Shortly after this close-fought engagement, Moffat, ‘who had been nearly five years in Africa, and who suffered from almost continued fever’, was compelled to take leave, much to the regret of his European companions, Thruston and Forster.

By the outbreak of the 1897-98 troubles in Uganda, Moffat was the Protectorate’s Principal Medical Officer, but he nevertheless took to the field with Captain Scott’s column and ‘rendered that Officer valuable assistance in disarming the Soudanese troops’. The official papers reporting on the campaign, which were submitted to the Houses of Parliament in January 1899, also made the following general observations regarding Moffat and his medical team:

‘The medical arrangements were very satisfactory, though various cases combined to throw a very heavy share of work on the Medical Officers. These were Dr. Moffat, Principal Medical Officer of the Protectorate ... The extremely small percentage of deaths amongst the wounded [some 550 all told] shows how thoroughly satisfactory the medical arrangements were, and especial praise is due to the Medical Officers for their excellent work ...’

Moffat was awarded the C.M.G., retired in 1906 and was appointed a Doctor of Medicine in the following year. He died in England in November 1947, leaving his papers and correspondence to the library of Makerere University in Kampala.