Group of group of five medals to Lance Corporal J Lowe of the 21st Lancers who charged at the Battle of Omdurman, 1898, estimate Aus$5000 at Abacus.
A former medical officer with the King’s African Rifles in Kenya who later settled in Perth, he was also a running colleague of Roger Bannister.
Among the 80 lots of medals on offer in Melbourne on December 6-8, are two Battle of Omdurman groups. This famous action in 1898 included one of the last cavalry charges by the British Army and was notable for the presence of a young Winston Churchill.
The first is a group of five named to Lance Corporal J Lowe of the 21st Lancers, supported by a letter from the regimental secretary which states, “He was in ‘B’ Squadron during the campaign… so LCpl Lowe must have earned his medals the hard way!”, indicating that he took part in the charge against 2000 enemy soldiers.
The group, including the Queen’s Sultan Medal and a Khedive’s Sudan Medal 1896-1908 with a Khartoum clasp, is guided at Aus$5000.
The second group comprises 10 medals awarded to Major AG Benson of the Royal Army Medical Corps that includes a Military OBE, a Distinguished Conduct Medal (personally fastened by Queen Victoria during a visit to Netley Hospital), a Queen’s South Africa Medal plus a First World War trio with Mentioned in Dispatches oakleaf clasp.
An excerpt from The Illustrated London Times states: “Sergeant Benson RAMC was one of the gallant soldiers at Omdurman who risked their own lives to aid their wounded comrades.”
It has an estimate of Aus$6000.
