A Collection of Medals to The Royal Engineers

A good Crimea War C.B. group of six awarded to Lieutenant-General E. F. Bourchier, Royal Engineers, who had earlier been mentioned in despatches for repulsing a night attack on his encampment on the Great Fish River, South Africa in 1846

The Most Honourable Order of The Bath, C.B. (Military) breast badge in gold and enamels, hallmarked London 1859, complete with swivel-ring suspension and gold riband buckle; South Africa 1834-53 (Capt., Rl. Engineers); Crimea 1854-56, 3 clasps, Alma, Inkermann, Sebastopol, unnamed as issued; Turkish Order of the Medjidie, 5th class breast badge, silver, with gold and enamel centre; French Legion of Honour, Chevalier’s breast badge, silver and enamel, with gold centre; Turkish Crimea 1855, British issue, unnamed as issued the fifth badly damaged, the remainder very fine and better (6) £2000-2500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to The Royal Engineers.

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See Colour Plate III

C.B. London Gazette 5 February 1856.

Eustace Fane Bourchier was born in August 1822 and was educated at Bonn and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. Commissioned into the Royal Engineers as a 2nd Lieutenant in January 1842, he quickly found himself employed on some memorable demolition duties, commanding a team of Sappers detailed to blow up two large barges formerly used as foundations for the beacons at Blyth Sand, Sheerness. One of the subsequent explosions caused by his handiwork threw debris up in the air to a height of 200 feet, at the same time similarly forcing a column of water 80 feet skyward.

Advanced to Lieutenant in December 1844, Bourchier found himself employed on rather more serious duties a couple of years later, when employed with the 9th Company of Sappers and Miners in South Africa, a story recorded in the official history of the Corps:

‘On 23 April 1846, under Lieutenant Bourchier, R.E., fifty-one non-commissioned officers and men repulsed an attack by the enemy on Farmer’s Camp, near Fort Brown [on the Great Fish River]. The action lasted about four hours, and though the night was extremely dark, the sappers, serving both as infantry and artillery in charge of two field-pieces, beat off the enemy with the loss, as was afterwards acknowledged by the Chief, Stock, of thirty killed. The sappers only were engaged in this affair, and their spirited and gallant conduct was reported by Lieutenant Bourchier.’

Indeed Bourchier’s command went on to inflict further casualties on the enemy while patrolling during May and June, and he was mentioned in despatches by Sir Peregrine Maitland. Subsequently employed in the 1851 operations in South Africa, he was advanced to 2nd Captain in August of the following year.

Next actively engaged in the Crimea War, Bourchier landed at Kalamita Bay as C.O. of the 8th Company of the Sapper and Miners, in mid-September 1854. Present at Alma and Inkermann, he was appointed Brigade Major in April 1855 and participated in the assault on the Redan on 18 June, being slightly wounded in the trenches. Mentioned in despatches by General Sir H. Jones, and created a C.B., Bourchier was further honoured with appointments to the 5th Class of the French Legion of Honour (London Gazette4 August 1856) and Turkish Order of Medjidie (London Gazette 2 March 1858). He was also advanced to Lieutenant-Colonel.

From 1857-60, he acted as Commanding Royal Engineer in the Bahamas, gaining promotion to full Colonel in August 1862. His next senior appointment was as A.A.G. in Ireland between 1866-68, in which latter year he became Major-General, and he finally retired in the late 1870s as a Lieutenant-General. Bourchier died in January 1902.