The Upfill-Brown Collection

BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY MEDAL 1890-97, reverse Matabeleland 1893, 1 clasp, Rhodesia 1896 (Trpr. J. J. O'Leary, Raaffs Col.), extremely fine

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

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Sergeant-Major John Joseph O'Leary served in the Matabele campaign as a Trooper in Raaff's Column, and with the Mashonaland Mounted Police, in 1896. He was killed in the attack on Cumming's Store 27 March 1896. O'Leary was with a patrol of 30 mounted volunteers and 14 M. M. Police under Inspector C. H. Southey which set out from Bulawayo under the general command of the Hon. M. H. Gifford. They reached Cumming's Store on 26 March and completed the defences of the place. They found the refugees, who numbered 36 men and a woman and child, were largely unharmed. The Matabele attacked before dawn on the 27th with great determination, firing on the store from three sides. Gifford ordered all his men, some of whom were in the verandah into the house. Sergeant Major O'Leary, M. M. P., who had been firing from behind a tree trunk in front of the store, was shot dead, his body being carried in by Inspector Southey. After an attack lasting 50 minutes the Matabele, having made little impression and with daylight appearing, retired back on the high ground. Apart from O'Leary, killed, the patrol suffered six men slightly wounded, the first casualties of the 1896 Rebellions.