A Fine Collection of Boer War Medals to Medical Services, the Church and the Press

A Great War K.B.E., C.B., C.M.G. group of seven awarded to Colonel Sir Henry M. W. Gray, Royal Army Medical Corps, who went to South Africa in 1899 with Sivewright’s Ambulance, an episode mired in controversy, and in the early stages of the Great War was appointed a consulting surgeon to the B.E.F.; post-war he became surgeon-in-chief at the Royal Victorian Hospital, Montreal

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, K.B.E. (Military) Knight Commander’s 1st type set of insignia, comprising neck badge, silver-gilt and enamels, and breast star in silver and enamel; The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, C.B. (Military) Companion’s breast badge converted for neck wear, silver-gilt and enamels, hallmarked London 1890; The Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, C.M.G., Companion’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamels; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 1 clasp, Cape Colony (H. M. W. Gray. Surgeon.) officially engraved naming ; 1914 Star (Major H. M. W. Gray. R.A.M.C.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Col. H. M. W. Gray.) generally good very fine (8) £2,600-£3,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of Boer War Medals to Medical Services, the Church and the Press.

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K.B.E. London Gazette 3 June 1919.

C.B. London Gazette 1 January 1916.

C.M.G. London Gazette 3 June 1918.

In The Lancet of 18 November 1899, there appeared the following notice:

“Under the auspices of Sir James Sivewright K.C.M.G., who was recently entertained to dinner in Edinburgh by the South African Students' Union, an ambulance corps chiefly composed of Edinburgh medical students connected with the Transvaal has been formed. A portion left Edinburgh on Saturday night for South Africa (Nov. 1899). They will be joined in London by Dr. and Mrs. Gray, Aberdeen, and several nurses. It is said that Sir James Sivewright is to pay the expense of equipment and that a British steamship line will convey the students and material free of cost."

‘There were to be two detachments under the direction of Dr Gray, assistant-surgeon at the Royal Infirmary, Aberdeen. The one group, in charge of Dr Gray himself, included his wife, a British student named Alan Johnson, and three South Africans, L. Fourie, G. H. van Zyl and D. Luther. The other group was in charge of Dr A.C. Neethling, a South African who had recently qualified and was working as a house-surgeon at the Bradford Infirmary. With him were four medical students, A. J. du Toit, W. Walker Hauman, C. T. Möller and J. L.Schoemann, and a nurse, a Mrs. Bamford. They took leave of their fellow students with promises to return soon and complete their interrupted studies, and on 15 November the James Sivewright Ambulance sailed in the Moravian from the Royal Albert Dock, charged to report at Cape Town to the Senior Commanding Officer and from there to 'make their way to the Boer lines by whatever route he may direct'.
The Moravian had hardly left England when a storm of abuse broke about Sivewright's head. It could not have been forgotten that until 1898 he was a member of Hofmeyer's Afrikaner Bond in the Cape Parliament. The sympathies of the Bondsmen were known to lie with their fellow Afrikaners in the Transvaal and, although Kruger regarded this support as ineffectual, it seemed little less than treasonable in the eyes of many of Her Majesty's subjects further away in Britain. Sivewright was accused in the press of being a traitor and sending aid to the 'enemies of his native country’. With a flourish of self righteous indignation he protested his neutrality and immediately offered Her Majesty's Government his 4 large properties in Hottentots Holland, to be used as convalescent homes for wounded British officers!
On 16 December 1899 the Moravian docked in Cape Town and the Sivewright reported to the Commanding Officer, impatient to be gone on their journey northwards. A telegram was sent to President Kruger, offering their services to the sick and wounded. The reply was startling. President Kruger declined their offer, stating that he did not ‘receive such gifts from an enemy’!
The Afrikaners in the party, no less determined to reach their destination but scenting trouble, kept in the background and urged Dr. Gray to approach Sir Alfred Milner himself and ask for safe conduct to the Boer lines. No details of this interview are available, but the outcome was disappointing. It may be guessed that Milner disapproved thoroughly of the entire scheme and found in Kruger's telegram confirmation of his own opinion of the Boers. In the end they abandoned their attempts to travel up through the Cape Colony and were given passages on board the Congella, bound for Delagoa Bay.
On 26 December the Sivewright Ambulance, their optimism revived, disembarked at Lourenco Marques and presented themselves to Mr. Pott, the Transvaal Consul.
Their arrival had evidently been anticipated - and not alone by Mr. Pott. According to Alan Johnson, one of the 3 British members of the corps, this gentleman ‘told them curtly that they were not wanted, declaring that there were no wounded to require their care’. Dr. Gray's consternation may be imagined, the more so as he began to suspect that the Consul's message was directed at the British element of the corps. Matters were not improved, either, by the discovery that Gray was carrying letters from friends to British officers in the Transvaal.
Again he saw Mr. Pott, explained the purpose of their mission, and assured him of the goodwill that had launched this venture which now, at the last moment, appeared to be in danger of floundering. The reply was the same as before: The Transvaal did not desire any assistance from Sir James Sivewright and would reimburse him all expenses.
Meanwhile the Afrikaner medical students had not been still. Some of them had already made contact with a Boer agent operating in Lourenco Marques and learned that they would be allowed across the border if they made their way to Resanna Garcia. When negotiations between Dr. Gray and Mr. Pott broke down, Dr. Neethling acted, promptly. The Afrikaners had no intention of turning back; if they could-get through on their own they would do so. Dr. Gray, however, regarding such action to be totally 'at variance with Sir James Sivewright's intentions’ refused to hand over the surgical equipment. A telegram was sent to Sir James without further delay. His reply was unequivocal: All the equipment was to be handed over to Dr. Neethling and he and the other Afrikaners should proceed to Pretoria.
Whether, as Alan Johnson later contended, the object of the Transvaal Government was merely to get rid of the British members of the expedition, cannot be known for certain. Against this there is evidence that those who did reach the Transvaal - including the nurse, Mrs. Bamford - did so not through any official channel but on their own initiative. Nevertheless, a tirade broke when the news reached London. The Times' correspondent stated openly that the expedition had been used ‘as a cloak to smuggle into the Transvaal men with Boer sympathies who would otherwise have been stopped’. In ‘a leading West End club', rumour flared into open accusation: an armed group of Afrikaners had cheated their way into the Transvaal to join the Boer forces, and Sir James Sivewright had been their dupe! The latter denied the charge vehemently and offered £1,000 to the Lord Mayor's Fund if it could be proved. In any case, he pointed out, as. Cape Colonials they were all British subjects and if caught with guns would be treated as rebels!
Of Dr. and Mrs. Gray and Alan Johnson little more was heard. Sad and disillusioned they made their way back to Durban and offered their services to the Imperial Army.
On 2 January 1900 Dr. Neethling and the rest of his group reached Pretoria. As individuals they were welcomed with open arms; as the Sivewright Ambulance they were still viewed with suspicion. By now, however, they had learnt enough about international diplomacy to sidestep any further entanglement with the Transvaal Government. They quietly dropped their title and joined Het Transvaalsche Roode Kruis as a single detachment under Dr. Neethling. By the end of January they were at the Natal front serving as a field ambulance to one of General Lukas Meyer's commandos.’ (Extracts taken from The James Sivewright Ambulance, S.A. Medical Journal, March 1966).

Henry M’Ilree Williamson Gray was born in the Parish of Oldmachar in 1870, son of Mr A. R. Gray, merchant, of Aberdeen. He received his early education at Merchiston School, where in 1888 he became captain of the school. From 1888 to 1891 he was in business in Aberdeen, and from 1891 to 1895 he studied medicine at Aberdeen University, graduating M.B., C.M., with honours in 1895. After graduation he spent a year as house surgeon in Sir Alexander Ogston’s wards in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. For a year, 1896-97, he studied at Bonn, Leipzig, Berlin and London, giving his attention chiefly to surgery, but also studying gynaecology and diseases of the skin. Upon his return to Aberdeen in 1897 he began practise as a surgeon, and in the autumn of that year was appointed assistant anaesthetist to the Royal Infirmary. A year later he was appointed assistant surgeon, and in 1904 obtained the the post of surgeon and lecturer in clinical surgery to the University. He had been admitted F.R.C.S., Edinburgh, in 1902.

Sir Henry Gray had a brilliant war record, and was decorated with the C.B. and C.M.G., and created a knight in 1919. In November 1899 he went to South Africa with Sir James Sivewright's Ambulance, a previous offer of his services to the Army Medical Department having been declined as at that time the necessity for further medical assistance was not apparent. After the ambulance was dispersed he served with the South African Field Force until he was invalided home in 1900. He was awarded the South African Medal with Clasp.
In the early stages of the European War, Sir Henry went on active service and he was afterwards appointed one of the consulting surgeons to the British Expeditionary Force, with the honorary rank of Colonel. He was four times mentioned in dispatches, and received the C.M.G in 1918. In August 1918 he accepted an appointment as assistant to Colonel Jones, who had charge of all the orthopaedic hospitals in England and Scotland. His appointment in 1923 as surgeon-in-chief at the Royal Victorian Hospital at Montreal ended abruptly in resignation and controversy arising from local opposition and ill-feeling. Sir Henry was invited to do some teaching work at M’Gill University, but refused to do so under one of his subordinates. He eventually consented to give a certain amount of lectures without payment. However, his connection with M’Gill was terminated in 1925, with Sir Arthur Currie, the Principal of M’Gill, alleging that the bitter feud which was raging around him was ruining the esprit de corps of the university. After his resignation a large body of opinion supported him. Sir Henry Gray died at Montreal on 6 October 1938.

Sold with original warrants of appointment for the K.B.E., C.B., and C.M.G, together with B.R.C.S. Certificate in recognition of valuable services rendered during the War 1914-19, newspaper obituary and a quantity of other research.