A Fine Collection of Boer War Medals to Medical Services, the Church and the Press

An important Boer War C.B. group of three awarded to Doctor Kendal Franks, Consulting Surgeon to H.M. Forces in South Africa

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, C.B. (Civil) Companion’s breast badge, 18 carat gold, hallmarked London 1887, complete with gold ribbon bar; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 4 clasps, Cape Colony, Paardeberg, Driefontein, Johannesburg (Dr. Kendal Franks, Consulting Surgn:) officially engraved naming; King’s South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (Doctor Kendal Franks att. to R.A.M.C.) officially engraved naming, mounted as worn; together with a very fine 18 carat gold and enamel, diamond-set Abercorn Masonic Lodge presentation jewel, hallmarked London 1902, approx 20.9g with old cut diamond approx 35 points, the reverse inscribed ‘Presented to R.W.B. Dr. Kendall Franks C.B. by his friends in the Abercorn Lodge 1903’, fitted with gold rings and hinged retaining clip for wearing, nearly extremely fine (4) £2,400-£2,800

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of Boer War Medals to Medical Services, the Church and the Press.

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C.B. London Gazette 19 April 1901: ‘Kendal Franks, Esq., M.D.’

M.I.D. London Gazette 8 February 1901: ‘Mr Watson Cheyne and Mr Kendal Franks, M.B., F.R.C.S.I., Consulting Surgeons, who have accompanied the Army, have rendered invaluable service by their advice and assistance to the Medical Officers. They have been unwearying in their work among the wounded and sick, and, humanly speaking, many a valuable life has been saved by their skill.’

M.I.D. London Gazette 16 April 1901: ‘Many thanks are also due to the distinguished consulting surgeons who have come out to this country, and by their advice and experience materially aided the Royal Army Medical Corps. The services rendered by... Mr. Kendal Franks... were of incalculable value.’

Kendal Franks was born in Dublin on 8 February 1851, the fourth son of Robert Fergusson Franks, a barrister of Jerpoint Hill in County Kilkenny, and his wife, Henriette Bushe, daughter of Charles Kendal Bushe, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, and a prominent Irish aristocrat.
Franks entered Trinity College, Dublin, where he had a distinguished career, obtaining the degree of B.A. in 1872 and the M.B. in 1875. After this he became a Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and went on to Leipzig to complete his medical studies. On his return in 1876, he was appointed a demonstrator in anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons and surgeon to the Dublin Throat and Ear Hospital. In the same year he obtained the M.D. and became a member of the senate of the University of Dublin. This was followed in 1878 by the Fellowship of the Irish College of Surgeons and in the same year he became senior surgeon to the Adelaide Hospital in Dublin. Here he pioneered in Ireland the implementation of Lister’s principles of antisepsis and asepsis. He also became surgeon-in-ordinary to the lord-lieutenant and vice-president of the Irish College of Surgeons.
Franks married twice: in 1879 Charlotte Selina Greene, sister of Sir William Conyngham Greene, later the British Agent in the Transvaal Republic; two years after her death in 1883 he married Gertrude Jane Butt, who contracted tuberculosis, and was advised to come to South Africa. Forced to abandon a brilliant professional career in Ireland, Franks and his family arrived in South Africa in 1896, and settled at Beaufort West, but his wife died the same year. Franks decided to remain in South Africa and moved to Johannesburg in 1897 where he was very successful and enjoyed a tremendous reputation.
Appointed one of the five consulting surgeons to the British forces during the Second Anglo-Boer War, and attached by Lord Roberts to his headquarters staff, he accompanied Roberts all through the campaign. He was present at the engagements at Paardeberg (27 February 1900) and Driefontein (10 March 1900), and at the entry into Bloemfontein (13 March 1900), Johannesburg (31 May 1900), and Pretoria (5 June 1900). He journeyed back to England with Lord Roberts, and in 1901 was gazetted a C.B. (Civil) for his services, having been twice mentioned in dispatches. On his return to South Africa in 1901, he was again appointed consulting surgeon to the British forces, and shortly afterwards undertook, at the special request of Lord Kitchener, an inspection of all the concentration camps; his reports on these were published in the Blue Books, and extracted at length by the London Times and other papers. He was again mentioned in dispatches and in 1904 was knighted for his services.

At the conclusion of the war he was made a nominee member of the first Transvaal Medical Council, but failed to obtain nomination to the second Council. He gave evidence to the Financial Relations Commission of the Transvaal Colony in 1905, outlining a hospital scheme for the Witwatersrand, with the Johannesburg Hospital as centre. He drew attention to the unsatisfactory provision made for public health in the Transvaal before Union and also under the act of Union (1909), as well as to the need for a medical school in Johannesburg.
Using his influence to convert the Witwatersrand Medical Council into a branch of the British Medical Association, he became the first president of the South African committee of this association, and laid the foundation stones of the South African Institute for Medical Research in 1912. In the same year he acted as president of the 1912 South African Medical Congress which was held in Johannesburg. He continued to advocate the establishment of a medical school there, and in 1916 chaired a meeting of registered medical practitioners of the Transvaal which was convened to discuss this matter.
Franks held the post of surgeon to the Johannesburg Hospital, consulting surgeon to the Central South African Railways, and medical director of the African Life Assurance Society. In the Johannesburg of his day, when surgeons combined surgery with general practice, he was the first "specialist" surgeon, and was considered a world expert in renal surgery.
He made valuable contributions to medical literature, and several publications appeared under his name, such as Addison’s disease (1882), On spontaneous dislocation of the hip (1883), A case of cerebral cyst (1888), and Professor Koch’s treatment of tuberculosis (1891). He also contributed many articles to various medical journals, including the Transvaal Medical Journal and the South African Medical Journal.
Apart from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, he was a Fellow of the Medico Chirurgical Society of London, of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland, and of the Royal Society of South Africa.
He was said to be a skilful water-colourist. For the last few years of his life he suffered considerable ill health which was due to diabetes, and became a confirmed invalid. His death occurred at his residence “Kilmurry”, Klein Street, Hospital Hill.

Sold with three small gilt tunic buttons together with copied research.