Orders, Decorations and Medals

A rare Surgeon’s British South Africa Company Medal for Matabeleland 1893 awarded to Dr. H. Edgelow, attached Salisbury Horse, a founder Committee Member of the famous “Salisbury Club

British South Africa Company Medal 1890-97, reverse Matabeleland 1893, no clasp (Doctor H. Edgelow, Salisbury H.), good very fine £550-6500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of British South Africa Company 1890-97 Medals.

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Herbert Edgelow qualified as a Surgeon in London in February 1884, prior to travelling to Mozambique to take up employment as Resident Physician for the Delagosa Bay Railway Co. at Lourenco Marques in 1888. He then moved to Mashonaland sometime in 1891 as Practising Surgeon in the employ of the British South Africa Company, becoming the first ever Hospital Surgeon in the newly built Salisbury Hospital. He was also one of the nine first Committee Members of the famous “Salisbury Club”, along with Cecil Rhodes and Dr. Leander Star Jameson, when it opened in May 1893.

Edgelow then became one of two Medical Officers borne on the strength of the Salisbury Horse during the Matabele Rebellion of 1893. During the pursuit of King Lobengula, Edgelow was replaced by Dr. A. W. Hogg (see Lot 886) during the halt at Shiloh.

Unfortunately, in late September 1894, Edgelow became mentally ill and was submitted to an asylum in Durban, Natal, eventually dying as an inmate of Ingutsheni Mental Hospital, Bulawayo, in April 1924, aged 70 years. Accompanying research indicates that Edgelow was born in Teignmouth, Devon in 1859, the son of a boarding school headmaster. One of 12 children, two of his brothers also qualified in medicine and another, Frederick Edward Edgelow, was awarded an Edward Medal in silver for rescuing two African miners in Rhodesia in 1910 - the Medal is today displayed at the Durham Mining Museum.