Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria. To coincide with the OMRS Convention

A most unusual pair awarded to The Right Reverend Thomas Charles John, M.A., D.D., Assistant Bishop on the Niger

East and West Africa 1887-1900, 1 clasp, Sierra Leone 1898-99 (T. C. John, Waterloo Vol. Corps); Jubilee 1935, very fine (2) £400-500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Awards to Civilians from the Collection of John Tamplin.

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Thomas Charles John belonged to the Hausa race, was the son of a Church Missionary Society pastor, and the grandson of a slave. He was born in Lokoja, Nigeria, on 2 April, 1871, and educated at Fourah Bay College, Freetown, taking degrees in arts and theology at Durham University, which also conferred on him the honorary degree of D.D. During the uprising in Sierra Leone in 1898-99, John served in the Waterloo Volunteer Corps, for which he received the medal and clasp, presented to him in June 1900 at Government House by Lady Cardew. He was ordained in 1902 and held various pastoral and educational charges until, in 1920, he became principal of the Christian Missionary Society grammar school at Freetown, Sierra Leone, where he had been successively pupil, teacher and vice-principal. He was appointed Canon of St. George's Cathedral, Freetown, in 1924, and sub Dean in 1929. In December, 1932, he was consecrated Assistant Bishop on the Niger, the sixth African to be raised to the Episcopate. The Right Reverend Thomas Charles John died in January 1936, aged 64.