Orders, Decorations and Medals

An interesting Egypt Campaign group of six awarded to Mr. J. R. Gibson, Director-General of the Egyptian Land Survey and British Commissioner of the Egyptian State Domains, who served as a spy for the Intelligence Department during the campaign of 1882

Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, dated reverse, no clasp (Mr. J. R. Gibson); Turkey, Order of Medjidie, 1st Class set of insignia, comprising sash badge, 67mm., gold and enamel, and breast star, 90mm., silver, gold and enamel, both unmarked, with original but frayed full sash, in Spink, London fitted red leather case; Turkey, Order of Osmanieh, 3rd class neck badge, 63mm., silver, gold and enamel, with original but frayed neck cravat; Khedive’s Star, 1882; Khedive’s Star, 1884, together with a silver medallion, obverse, Nile scene with the Pyramids, reverse, Ottoman arms and ‘Domaines del Etat’ engraved below, the edge further engraved, ‘Pour Coton Abbassi et Afifi (Garbieh), Jan. 1898’, 44mm., the first with official correction to initials, generally good very fine or better (7) £1000-1200

James Richardson Gibson, whose sister, Catherine, married Captain John William Clayton, late 13th Light Dragoons (see previous Lot), as his second wife, in 1892, was the eldest son of James William Gibson and his wife Rosetta, of Circular Head, Tasmania.

Young James commenced his career in the Revenue Survey in India in 1860, where he worked until being invalided to England in 1880, latterly having served as a Deputy Superintendent. Not quite having recovered his health, but by special request from the Foreign Office, he went out to Egypt with an appointment in the Land Survey, where, in early 1882, he was asked to assist Major (Later General) Tulloch of the Intelligence Department at Cairo. Here, he was charged with gathering intelligence in anticipation of forthcoming military operations, a chapter of his career described in his privately published memoir, Notes on Service in Egypt 1881-1895: ‘As my duties in the Survey Department enabled me to visit all parts of the country, and to have access to records which were not open to the public, I was able to obtain a certain amount of information without attracting attention and I finally prepared and forwarded to the War Office a map of Lower Egypt ... I was still endeavouring, with little success, to carry on the survey when the massacre of Europeans took place in Alexandria on 11 June 1882, which was soon followed by the arrival of the English Fleet. The Khedive, the British Consul General, and almost all the European officials then took up their residence in Alexandria, and their departure was the signal for a general exodus of European merchants and tradesmen from Cairo. I was left with three other English officials, and received instructions from Sir Auckland Colvin, the English Comptroller General, to send him a daily report of the events in Cairo. This I continued to do till the 9 July, when I received instructions to come to Alexandria as the bombardment would probably take place in 24 hours.’

On reaching Alexandria, where the streets were ‘swarming with soldiers and low class Arabs’, but where fortunately Gibson and his party were ‘allowed to pass through the town unmolested’, he sought refuge aboard one of H.M’s ships. The naval bombardment over, he volunteered his services, and was duly appointed to the Intelligence Department under Sir F. Goldsmid, to collect information for the use of the British military. Gibson continues:

‘While serving in the Intelligence Department, I made several reconnaissances in the country lying between the outskirts of Alexandria and the Abou Kir Lake, in order to watch the movements of Arabi’s troops who were entrenched on the banks of the Mahmowdieh Canal. On my return from one of these excursions I learnt that Midshipman De Chair had been taken prisoner by a patrol of Arab cavalry just outside the village of Ramleh. I had passed through the same village, which consists of a single street, at an early hour the same morning, but saw nothing of the patrol; they were doubtless concealed among the palm trees and probably I had a narrow escape. After this I went out on two occasions when the Highland Brigade made demonstrations to draw out, and if possible, engage Arabi’s troops near Kafr Dawar, and on both of these occasions there were a few casualties.’

Released from his duties on behalf of the Intelligence Department in late August 1882, Gibson next joined the 1st Division of the British Army under Sir Garnet Wolseley at Ismailia, where he was placed under the command of Major Ardagh, R.E., and assisted in landing stores and in taking depositions from Arab prisoners; so, too, in carrying out further reconnaissance sorties in the neighbourhood of Salahieh, where a brigade of Arabs was posted.

But it was in the course of his final task on behalf of the military that he had his closest call, while transporting by rail 370 Arab wounded to the Civil Hospital at Cairo - ‘We started from Tel-el-Kebir about 1 p.m. on 15 September, under a blazing sun and followed by swarms of flies attracted by the smell of blood.’ Unfortunately for Gibson, not just flies were attracted to his human cargo, for in the course of a water stop at Benha station, a huge crowd gathered on learning that his train contained many wounded Arabs. Gibson continues:

‘The crowd was beginning to get very excited and as it was no use trying to argue with them, I got on the engine and made the driver move on slowly. The crowd followed the train, but as we gathered speed they soon fell behind, though they continued yelling and abusing us till we were out of hearing. I arrived at Cairo station at 8 p.m., and by 11 p.m. all the wounded had been safely transported to the hospital ... By midnight on 15 September, I had my first comfortable bath since 24 August and my first “square meal” in the same period. Thus ended my experience as a volunteer in 1882.’

Gibson received no particular distinction for his services, other than a tardy letter from the Foreign Office in 1884, acknowledging the valuable services which he ‘rendered to the Expeditionary Force in Egypt during the campaign of 1882’, and assurance that said services had not ‘passed unnoticed’. Knowing, as he did, a couple of other civil officers who had received a C.B. and a C.M.G., for taking no risks whatsoever, he was none too pleased.

He was, however, appointed Director-General of the Egyptian Land Survey after the 1882 campaign, and lent valuable service during the outbreak of Asiatic cholera in Cairo in the summer of 1883. Awarded the Order of Osmania (3rd Class) in 1885, he was next appointed British Commissioner of the Egyptian State Domains, with charge of a land mass ‘twice the size of the county of Middlesex’. Remaining similarly employed until his retirement, and having been awarded the Order of Medjidie (1st Class) in May 1900, Gibson died at his residence in Felpham, Sussex, in 1909.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including Horse Guards forwarding letter for the Khedive’s Star 1882, dated 4 August 1883, with accompanying hand written note stating, ‘An Egyptian Medal will be prepared and sent to you by the Commissary General of Ordnance, Woolwich’; Foreign Office letter of commendation for the Egypt campaign of 1882, dated 28 February 1884 (’Sir C. Malet, lately Her Majesty’s Agent and Consul-General in Egypt, and his successor Sir Evelyn Baring, have both brought to my notice the valuable services which you rendered to the Expeditionary Force in Egypt during the campaign of 1882 ... ’); a letter of thanks for an official report written by the recipient, dated April 1884 (’In sending [it] over I shall say to Lord Grenville that you deserve great credit for the progress which has been made’); Osmania licence to wear document, and related forwarding letter, dated 13 February 1885, the former stating ‘in recognition of your services whilst actually and entirely employed by His Highness the Khedive of Egypt beyond our Dominions’; Medjidie licence to wear document, dated 28 May 1900, together with what is believed to be a related bestowal document; a copy of his privately published memoir, Notes on Service in Egypt 1881-1895, pamphlet, 19pp., printed by T. J. Whiting & Sons, London, n.d.; a portrait photograph of Gibson, by P. Dittrich, Cairo, and a folio of mezzo-tints of Egyptian scenes (11 images), by Lafayette, London; and three uniform buttons, Egyptian crescent design, by Firmin, London.