BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY MEDAL 1890-97, reverse Matabeleland 1893, 1 clasp, Rhodesia 1896 (Sergt. J. C. Judge, Victoria Column), nearly extremely fine

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The AA Upfill-Brown Collection.

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Sergeant John Charles Judge was born at Brackley, Northants., of Irish descent, in 1868. He went to South Africa in 1889 and attested to the B. S. A. Police on 27 January 1891, serving at Fort Tuli with E Troop. In the Matabele War of 1893 he served as a Sergeant in charge of a Maxim gun in the Victoria Rangers. He was then engaged in farming in the Bulawayo area until the outbreak of the Matabele Rebellion in 1896, during which he served with the Artillery Troop. He returned to farming after the end of the rebellion but Rindepest had caused him severe cattle losses so he took part in various prospecting ventures until 1898 when he became a partner in a corn and saw-milling business. He sold out and saw service in the Boer War in 1900 under Lt. Col. Napier, being present at the relief of Mafeking. Then, with his cousin, he cycled from Fort Tuli to Cape Town and from there sailed to Australia and New Zealand, eventually settling in British Columbia where he acquired land at Salmon Arm. While back in Rhodesia on business in 1902, he was present at the funeral of Cecil Rhodes at World's View. In 1904 he left Rhodesia, married, and returned to Salmon Arm where he was elected the first Mayor in 1906. Judge returned to England in 1909 and bought a farm at Stradbroke, Suffolk where he lived until 1952 when he went to live with his son at Iniscarra, County Cork. He died there on 22 December 1954.