Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Captain F. G. Doyle, 2nd Dragoon Guards, who served on ‘Special Service’ in the Zulu war of 1879, and who died at home in 1882 of typhoid contracted on active service in Egypt whilst attached to the 4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards

South Africa 1877-79, 1 clasp, 1879 (Capt; F. Doyle. 2nd Dgn. Gds.); Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, dated reverse, 1 clasp, Tel-El-Kebir (Capt. F. G. Doyle. 2nd Dn. Gds.) ‘2nd’ officially corrected; Khedive’s Star, dated 1882, nearly extremely fine and rare (3) £3,000-£4,000

Only 9 Zulu War medals issued to the 2nd Dragoon Guards, all with 1879 clasp, Doyle being the senior of the three officers present.

Frederick Grenville Doyle was born on 4 April 1848, son of Sir Francis Hastings Doyle, Bart. He entered the army as an Ensign in the 63rd Foot on 20 February 1866, transferring to the 60th Foot on the following 9 March. Promoted to Lieutenant in the 60th Foot on 22 May 1869, he transferred to the 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen’s Bays) on 8 March 1876. He was then made Extra Aide-de-Camp to Governor of Madras, a position he held from January to July 1868, and then to G.O.C. Southern District between 1 April 1874 and 30 June 1877. Doyle accompanied Sir Garnet Wolseley to South Africa in May 1879, and was employed on special service until the conclusion of the campaign in Zululand as Commandant at Headquarters of the army (Medal with Clasp). He passed the Senior Department, Staff College, 1880, and subsequently served in the Egyptian campaign of 1882, attached to the 4th Dragoon Guards, including at the Battle of Tel-el-Kebir (Medal with Clasp, Khedive’s Bronze Star). He was invalided to England and died at home on 12 December 1882 of ‘typhoid fever, contracted in the late Egyptian campaign, while attached to the 4th Dragoon Guards’. He is buried in Meifod Parish churchyard, where the inscription on his headstone reads:

‘In Loving memory of Francis Grenville Doyle 2nd Dragoon Guards eldest son of Francis Hastings Doyle, Baronet and Sidney his wife, daughter of the Honourable Charles Williams Wynne. Born April 1846 - Died 2nd December 1882 at Coed-Y-Maen of fever contracted in the Egyptian Campaign at Magfar, Mahuta, Masemeh and in the Kassassin and Tel-el-Kebir Campaign and entered Cairo with the 1st Detachment. Coming home only to die.’

Sold with copied photograph of the recipient in uniform wearing the first medal together with other copied research.