Medals from the Collection of R.W. Gould, MBE

Pair: Private A. Eyre, Cape Mounted Rifles and British South Africa Police

Cape of Good Hope General Service 1880-97, 1 clasp, Basutoland (Pte., C.M. Rifn.); British South Africa Company Medal 1890-97, reverse Rhodesia 1896 (Troopr., B.S.A. Police) some light contact marks, otherwise better than very fine (2) £350-400

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of R.W. Gould, MBE.

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Also entitled to South Africa 1877-79 with clasp for ‘1877-8-9’, and to the clasp for Mashonaland 1897 as a Corporal. Eyre served as a Corporal with the Pioneer Corps in Mashonaland 1890 but died before this medal was issued. The following biography appears in The Pioneer Corps by Robert Cary:

Thomas Arthur Page Eyre (all rolls give initial ‘A’ only but confirms as same man) attested into the Pioneer Corps, 7th May 1890, as a Trooper. Appointed to “A” Troop, 21st June; promoted Corporal, 25th July. He was born in Eyrecourt, Co. Galway, Ireland, in 1859, eldest son of Colonel Thomas Eyre, 3rd Bengal Light Cavalry. He emigrated to South Africa after leaving school and joined the Cape Mounted Riflemen, serving in the Moirosi campaign of 1879, as well as the Gaika, the Galeka and first Langberg campaigns. He afterwards joined the Bechuanaland Border Police but subsequently resigned and went to Johannesburg.

Eyre prospected in the Lomagundi area with J. A. Spreckley and W. H. Brown after the disbandment of the Pioneer Corps, and took part in a hunting expedition with W. H. Brown and others to the Angwa district, September-December 1892, during which he shot a white rhino (which was later bought by Cecil Rhodes and presented to the Cape Town Museum).

Eyre discovered the Eldorado Mine and set up, with his brother Herbert, a trading store for prospectors at Eyre’s Poort. He also built a road to Umvukwes on contract for the Government. He was appointed to take charge of the scouts in Colonel Beal’s Column in 1896, and was later guide to Colonel Alderson’s Column in 1896-97. With his brother, Herbert, he was allotted Kilmacduagh Farm, in the District of Lomagundi, in September 1896, and he served on the Chamber of Mines from 1896 onwards. He died of blackwater fever at Salisbury on 9 March 1899.