The Jack Webb Collection of Medals and Militaria

The important Ashantee War medal awarded to Lieutenant G. S. Smith, Royal Navy, who landed from Druid to serve with the Naval Brigade at Coomassie, and was afterwards murdered by natives at Ukerewe, on Lake Victoria Nyanzia, in 1877, when leading the first contingent of missionaries sent by the Church Missionary Society to Uganda

Ashantee 1873-74, 1 clasp, Coomassie (Lt. G. S. Smith, R.N., H.M.S, Druid, 73-74) lightly polished, otherwise good very fine £1,200-£1,500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Jack Webb Collection of Medals and Militaria.

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George Shergold Smith was the son of Captain Shergold Smith, R.N., and joined the Navy as Sub-Lieutenant on 9 May 1866. Promoted to Lieutenant in June 1869, he joined Flora in April 1870, and removed to Fly in May 1870. He was awarded the Royal Humane Society bronze medal in March 1871, together with Stoker D. Doody, also of Fly, for saving life at sea off Jellah Coffee, Africa, on 10 September 1870. Paid off from Fly in June 1873, he attended Royal Naval College in September 1873, before his appointment to Active, additional, for dispersal to Druid, which ship he joined on 12 November 1873. He landed with the Naval Brigade in the Ashantee campaign (Medal with Clasp). Signed ‘sick’ on 17 July 1874, he was granted a special pension of £50 on account of impaired eyesight, owing to exposure on service in the campaign, and left the service in March 1876.

‘The story of little Adjai’s rescue from the slave ship in 1822 is well known to the friends of Missions. On board the vessel which was the means of saving the future ‘black Bishop’ of the Niger was a young midshipman, afterwards Captain Shergold Smith, R.N. His son, Lieutenant George Shergold Smith, served in the Ashanti expedition. Here he was employed in the difficult work of securing native porters to accompany the army. The carrying out of this task afforded him some experience of, and insight into, the African character. On a journey taken on this business he caught a fever, which so injured his eyesight that he was recommended to retire on a pension. Returning home, he resolved to devote himself to the ministry of the Gospel, and entered St John’s Hall, Highbury, as a student. Finding his eyesight improve, his thoughts turned again to the country where he had seen the ‘gross darkness’ covering the people. ‘I love the African,’ he said, ‘and I want to preach Christ to him.’ He had already been in communication with the Church Missionary Society when the call came for labourers for the Victoria Nyanza Mission. He at once volunteered for the work. ‘Send me out,’ he said, in any capacity. I am willing to take the lowest place.’ But the committee, perceiving the worth of his character and his experience, at once appointed him leader of the expedition.’ (The Story of Uganda and the Victoria Nyanza Mission, by Sarah Geraldina Stock refers).

Charles D. Michael takes up the story in James Hannington of East Africa - Bishop Martyred for Africa: ‘In spite of the many and grave dangers to be encountered, volunteers for this pioneer work were quickly forthcoming, and a party of eight persons formed the first missionary expedition to Uganda. The members of the party were George Shergold Smith, an ex-Lieutenant of the Royal Navy, who was studying for the ministry of the Church of England; Alexander Mackay, a young Scotch engineer; the Rev. C. T. Wilson, a Manchester curate; Mr T. O’Neill, an architect; Dr John Smith, a qualified medical man from Edinburgh; G. J. Clark, an engineer; W. M. Robertson, an artisan; and James Robertson, a builder from Newcastle.

Arrangements were completed as quickly as possible; and by the end of April, 1876, the little band had all left England on their adventurous journey. James Robertson had been rejected by the doctors when he offered to accompany the expedition; but he was so eager to go that he went eventually at his own risk and expense. He was hopelessly ill, however, when the party reached the coast, and he died before the journey into the interior had commenced.

Starting from the mainland opposite Zanzibar, the party followed an old trade route, proceeding westward for about 230 miles, then continuing for some 300 miles father in a north-westerly direction, to the south of the Victoria Nyanza. From this point it was the intention of the travellers to continue their journey on the great lake itself, skirting the shores in canoes until they reached Uganda.

Some idea of the difficulty of the undertaking may be gathered from the fact that the journey from the coast to the shore of the lake - about 530 miles in all - occupied more than six months. The Rev. J. D. Mullins, M.A., in his intensely interesting book, The Wonderful Story of Uganda, gives a graphic account of the discomforts endured by the brave little band of pioneers during their weary months of overland travel through Central Africa. They suffered terrible exhaustion and depression from the overpowering humid heat; they were continually tormented by a plague of insects, centipedes and snakes; they were in danger every day and every night from lurking beasts of prey. Fever attacked them, and left them almost too weak to travel; and they were subject to constant demands for tribute from petty chiefs whom they were bound to placate, or run the risk of personal violence. All their luggage and food, the goods they took with them as presents for the natives, and the cloth that served the purpose of money as a medium of exchange, had to be carried on the heads of black porters, who were themselves a constant source of worry and anxiety. “The long, straggling line which wound its way along the narrow paths often comprised hundreds of men; some deserting, some falling ill, some dying, some attacked by robbers.”

Not until 26th June, 1877 - a day for ever memorable in the annals of missions - was Rubaga, the capital of Uganda, reached; and then only two of the original party of eight arrived there - Shergold Smith and C. T. Wilson. Of the little band who had so bravely offered to share in this splendid effort to carry the Gospel to the centre of Darkest Africa, one was already dead; Mackay, prostrate with fever, was ordered back to the coast from Mpwapwa, 220 miles inland; Clark was left in charge of the mission station at that place, but was afterwards, through ill-health, compelled to return home; W. Robertson broke down shortly after the party had left Mpwapwa, and had to go back. The remaining four went on, fighting their way through forests and swamps where malaria lurked, and across arid, trackless desert wastes until they reached the shores of the lake at last. There, when the most arduous part of their journey was accomplished, Dr John Smith died, and O’Neill was left behind.

News of the arrival of the missionaries on the southern shore of the lake speedily reached Uganda, and it was not long before they received a letter from Mtesa, urging them to come to him with all possible speed. Accordingly, they made immediate preparations to continue their journey in a small steam launch, the Daisy, which they had brought with then in sections. In this little vessel they made good progress until, attempting to land at an unknown place, the natives greeted them with showers of stones and arrows. Shergold Smith was nearly blinded with the stones, and Wilson was wounded in the arm with an arrow. This, however, was the only untoward incident that occurred during the journey, and, as already stated, Rubaga was reached on 26th June, 1877. On arrival they were escorted with great ceremony through a double line of soldiers, dressed in white, to the king’s palace - a wonderful structure with walls of reed - and Mtesa gave them a royal reception, ordering salutes to be fired in their honour, and in honour of the name of Jesus.

Almost pathetic, in that it shows the eager desire for the Gospel that existed in the mind of Mtesa, is an incident recorded by Mr Wison, who tells that after the formal reception was over, “the king sent a message to say that he had one word that he wanted to say to us, but was afraid to do so before the people in the morning. So about four o’clock we went up. He said he wanted to know if we had brought the Book - the Bible.”

Mtesa ordered a mission station to be built, and as soon as this was finished, Shergold Smith journeyed south again to rejoin O’Neill, with whom he intended to go back to Rubaga. But this was not to be. The missionaries had had dealings with an Arab trader, from whom they had purchased a dhow. The Arab got into difficulties through a quarrel with a native king, and fled to the missionaries for protection. The king pursued him, and ordered the missionaries to give him up. This, however, they refused to do. The king thereupon attacked their camp, and Shergold Smith and O’Neill were both slain. It was on the 7th December that this disaster occurred.’

Sold with copied record of R.N. service, copied extracts from The Story of Uganda and the Victoria Nyanza Mission, by Sarah Geraldina Stock, and copied cuttings from The Times for April and June 1878, concerning the massacre.