BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY MEDAL 1890-97, reverse Matabeleland 1893, 2 clasps, Rhodesia 1896, Mashonaland 1897 (Capt. Robert Reed, Victoria Col.), goodvey fine

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

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Robert Reed (Reid) attested on 15/7/1890 and described by his troop officer, Capt. A. G. Leonard, as a Colonial of Scottish descent, 'cool and quiet, ' to whom native caution was added. In November, 1890, he brought up to Macloutsie, the E Troop headquarters, 42 recruits from Kimberley, of whom 22 were sent on to Fort Tuli. In December of thesame year he was sent by Capt. Leonard from Fort Tuli on a reconnaissance patrol to look for a Matabeleimpi reported at the junction of the Macloutsie and Shashi Rivers. He was promoted to corporal in E Troop on 17/12/1890. In February, 1891, with a group of Pay Office men at Fort Tuli, he fired repeatedly at an old log in the Shashi River in the belief that it was a crocodile. To settle the argument Reid stripped and attempted to swim across the river to the supposed carcass, but the current was too strong for him. The argument was therefore never settled. On 23/8/1891 he was with Capt. Leonard and a party of 12 men who raided a number of Makalaka villages on the banks of the Shashi River to search for two missing rifles. The search was unsuccessful, but the squalor of the villages made a strong impression on the party. Reed was promoted to lance-sergeant on 26/9/1891 and discharged from E Troop on 9/10/1891; he is said to have served at one time in the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons. He is named by Leonard in his epilogue to How We Made Rhodesia as one of the men who made Rhodesia. Captain Robert Reed served in the Victoria Rangers in the Marabele War of 1893, and before the column set out from Fort Victoria assisted Capt. C. F. Lendy in training the artillery; he rendered good service throughout the campaign, and was an expert in the mechanism of the Maxim gun. He is said to have asserted that he found the Wankie coal area but that Geise got the credit. Reed served with the Victoria Rifles in 1896 and with the Garrison Volunteers in 1897. He was the only officer to qualify for the 1893 medal with two clasps and one of only eight men who was entitled to a four clasp medal when Mashonaland 1890 was sanctioned in 1926, however his 1890 medal was unclaimed.