Orders, Decorations and Medals

New Zealand 1845-1866, reverse undated (Dy. Supt. J. O. Hamley, Milty. Stores) fitted with silver ribbon buckle, very fine £400-500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Langham Collection of Medals to the Royal Army Ordnance Corps.

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Commissary General Joseph Osbertus Hamley, C.B., was born on 25 September 1820, son of Joseph Hamley, Surgeon and Coroner of Bodmin, Cornwall. He was educated at Grammar School in Lostwithiel, Cornwall, and appointed to the Ordnance Department in 1838. He served in Sydney, 1838-47, and then at Wellington and Auckland, New Zealand. Mr. Hamley was in charge of the Military Store Department in New Zealand from 1847 to 1870, and was present during the War in the Southern District in 1847, and in the two Wars in the Northern District in 1860-61 and 1863-65 (Medal and C.B. Civil). He was presented with a handsome piece of plate by the inhabitants of Wellington for his services in extinguishing a fire which threatened the destruction of the business part of the city, and also for saving the life of a girl from drowning in the harbour. He returned to England in 1870 and was appointed to the charge of Gun Wharf at Chatham, and later with the War Office at Dover and Aldershot. Whilst in New Zealand, he was Founder and Secretary of the “Hamley Gun Club,” and Swimming Pool, in Auckland. Major-General Hamley retired after more than 42 years’ service and died on 5 July 1911. Sold with further details, including a copy of the Rule Book of the “Hamley Gun Club” which contains a portrait of Hamley himself.