A Collection of Medals for the Ashantee War 1873-74

Four: Fleet Paymaster H. C. W. Gibson, Royal Navy

Ashantee 1873-74, no clasp (H. C. W. Gibson, Secy. R.N. H.M.S. Active. 73-74); Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, dated reverse, no clasp (H. C. W. Gibson, Secy. R.N. H.M.S. “Euryalus”); Khedive’s Star 1882; Order of the Medjidie, 3rd Class neck badge, silver, gold and enamel, nearly extremely fine (4) £500-600

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals for the Ashantee War 1873-74.

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Henry Cecil William Gibson was appointed Assistant Clerk on 13 March 1863, becoming Assistant Paymaster in November 1868. He was present during the Ashantee war of 1873-74 as Secretary to Commodore W. Hewett, V.C., in H.M.S. Active, engaged in patrols off the coast from December 1873 to February 1874 (Medal).

Gibson continued as Secretary to Commodore Hewett in Active, Flagship, West Africa Squadron, and participated in the punitive expedition to the Congo in 1875 against pirates. For his services on this occasion, Gibson was specially promoted to Paymaster in November 1875. The following year Active was involved in operations against the King of Dahomey and blockaded the port of Whydah for most of the month of July, until the squadron was urgently called away to the river Niger. During the subsequent operations against pirates on this river a landing was made at Sabogrega on 1 August 1876. Although Secretary Gibson and the Reverand Lang were not in the landing party they pulled ashore from a gun-boat in a dinghy to rescue a wounded seaman on the beach. While they were lifting the seaman a hostile native opened fire and wounded both of them severely.

Gibson went with Rear-Admiral Hewett, V.C., as his Secretary and Interpreter in French, when he hoisted his flag in H.M.S. Euryalus, flagship of the East Indies Squadron, taking part in the operations in Egypt in 1882 (Medal, Medjidie 3rd Class, and Bronze Star). He subsequently followed Hewett to Minotaur, as Staff Paymaster and Secretary, in April 1886, and to Northumberland, flagship of the Channel Fleet, as Fleet Paymaster and Secretary, in November 1887. Vice-Admiral Hewett became seriously ill in April 1888 and died at Haslar Hospital the following month; he was replaced in command of the Channel Fleet by Vice-Admiral Baird who brought his own Secretary and Gibson, therefore, went on half-pay on 18 April and retired in June 1888.