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Auction: 4020 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals & Militaria
Lot: 102

An Extremely Rare West Africa D.C.M. Group of Five to Lieutenant J. Halfpenny, Inniskilling Fusiliers, Late Royal Artillery and West Africa Field Force Distinguished Conduct Medal, V.R. (Sergt: R:H:A.); East and West Africa, three clasps, Niger 1897, 1898, 1899 (Sergeant Royal Horse Artillery), this renamed; Ashanti 1900, one clasp, Kumassi (Lieut. W.A.F.F.); Africa General Service 1902-56, four clasps, Aro 1901-1902, S.Nigeria 1902-03, S.Nigeria 1903-04, S.Nigeria 1904, the last three clasps contemporary copies (Lieut. R. Innis: Fus:); Royal Niger Company's Medal, one clasp, Nigeria 1896-1897 (Sergeant, Royal Horse Artillery.), extremely fine, mounted cavalry style as worn (5) Estimate £ 6,000-7,000 D.C.M. London Gazette 30.6.1897 (Recommendation submitted to the Queen 23.6.1899) Lieutenant J. Halfpenny (1870-1911) joined the Royal Horse Artillery and served 10 years and 59 days in the ranks, during which time he was attached to the Royal Niger Company and the West Africa Field Force; During the 'Niger 1897' Campaign, for which there were three expeditions, Halfpenny was one of eight British N.C.O.s present, and took part in the first two, to Egbon and Bida, returning to Lokoja prior to the third expedition to Ilorin. In his report on the expedition to Bida, Halfpenny was included among the 'officers deserving of special mention' by Major A.J. Arnold, 3rd Royal Hussars, who received the only military award for the campaign, the D.S.O. Halfpenny was awarded his D.C.M. for a secondary excursion that followed the conclusion of the expedition by the Royal Niger Constabulary under Major Festing to Anam and Igala, May 1898. Homeward bound, the Expeditionary Force stopped at Idah whereupon the local political agent requested Festing to send a small party to punish the slave trading peoples of Orah. Halfpenny led the attack on the Chief's village of Yannkodi, during which three R.N.Coy. policemen were injured, and the Chief was killed. Halfpenny was commissioned Second Lieutenant 5.1.1901, and appointed Lieutenant Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers 18.7.1902. He was attached to the Southern Nigeria Regiment from 5.1.1901 to 1910 in which year he retired. The next year he decided to emigrate and join his family in Australia, but he died en route and was buried at sea. (refs; lt S. Vandeleur, Campaigning on the Upper Nile and Niger (1898); WO Records 1897, 1898: CO Annual Reports 1898)

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£7,200