Orders, Decorations and Medals

A most unusual pair awarded to The Right Reverend Thomas Charles John, M.A., D.D., Assistant Bishop on the Niger

EAST AND WEST AFRICA 1887-1900, 1 clasp, Sierra Leone 1898-99 (Waterloo Vol. Corps.); JUBILEE 1935, unnamed as issued, very fine (2)

Thomas Charles John belonged to the Hausa race and was a grandson of slaves. He was born in Lokoja, Nigeria, 2nd April, 1871, and educated at Fourah Bay College, Freetown, taking degrees in arts and theology at Durham University, which also conferred on him the honorary degree of D.D. He was ordained in 1902 and held various pastoral and educational charges until, in 1920, he became principal of the Christian Missionary Society grammar school at Freetown, Sierra Leone, where he had been successively pupil, teacher and vice principal. He was appointed Canon of St. George's Cathedral, Freetown, in 1924, and sub Dean in 1929. In December, 1932, he was consecrated Assistant Bishop on the Niger, the sixth African to be raised to the Episcopate. Bishop John died in January, 1936.