Medals to The Rifle Brigade and Affiliated Regiments from the collection formed by Michael Haines

The Knight Bachelor and C.B.E. group of five awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Arthur Ferguson, The Rifle Brigade, Inspector of Scottish Police, together with family medals

Knight Bachelor’s Badge, 1st type breast badge, silver-gilt and enamels, hallmarked 1926; The Order of the British Empire, C.B.E. (Civil) 1st type neck badge; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 4 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Johannesburg, South Africa 1901 (Major, Rifle Bde.); British War Medal (Lt. Col.); Coronation 1911, Scottish Police (Maj., H.M. Insp. of Constab.)

Pair: Lieutenant-Colonel G. A. Ferguson, Grenadier Guards

Crimea 1854-56, 1 clasp, Sebastopol (Captn., Grenadier Guards) regimentally impressed naming; Turkish Crimea, Sardinian issue, unnamed

Single: Sergeant F. W. Ferguson, Pioneer Corps and Salisbury Horse

British South Africa Company’s Medal 1890-97, reverse Matabeleland 1893 (Sergt., Salisbury Horse) the Crimea pair with contact marks and edge bruising, otherwise extremely fine (8) £1000-1200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals to The Rifle Brigade and Affiliated Regiments from the collection formed by Michael Haines.

View
Collection

Arthur George Ferguson was born on 22 June 1862, elder son of George Arthur Ferguson, and educated at Eton. Commissioned into the Rifle Brigade on 27 January 1883, he acted as A.D.C. to the Duke of Connaught while Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay Army, 1888-90, and to General Lord William Seymour, while General Officer Commanding the South East District, 1891-95, and the troops in Canada, 1898-1900. During the Boer War he was a Special Service Officer, receiving promotion to Major on 5 February 1901. He retired in 1904 and took up an appointment as H.M. Inspector of Constabulary in Scotland, which position he held until 1927. During the Great War he commanded the 10th and 17th Service Battalions of the Rifle Brigade in the U.K., and received promotion to Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel on 2 March 1918. He was awarded the C.B.E. in 1920, and a Knighthood on the occasion of his retirement. Sir Arthur Ferguson died on 15 February 1935.

George Arthur Ferguson was born on 17 March 1835, and was appointed Ensign in the Grenadier Guards on 15 December 1853, becoming Lieutenant & Captain on 30 November 1855. He served with the Grenadier Guards in the Crimea from 19 February 1855, including the siege and fall of Sebastopol (Medal and clasp; Turkish medal). He retired by the sale of his commission on 7 July 1862, and was appointed a Member of the Royal Company of Archers on 1 October 1867. He married in February 1861, Hon. Nina Maria Hood, V.A., Bedchamber Woman to Queen Victoria, eldest daughter of Alexander, 1st Viscount Bridport, G.C.B., and died on 15 December 1924.

Francis William Ferguson was born in Montreal, Canada, in 1863, second son of Lieut.-Colonel G. A. Ferguson, and younger brother of Arthur George Ferguson. He went to Rhodesia and was attested into the Pioneer Corps on 15 March 1890, being appointed to “C” Troop on 27 May, and to the Intelligence Staff on 4 September. He became Mining Commissioner, Lomagundi District in 1893, and served as a Sergeant in the Salisbury Horse during the 1893 War, for which he received the medal. He would also have been entitled to the 1890 Medal but was long dead before these were finally issued. In the Matabele War he fought at the Shangani and Bembesi. Latterly Civil Commissioner and Magistrate in Victoria, Ferguson died in Victoria Hospital on 24 January 1896 of heart failure due to exhaustion after attacks of fever and jaundice.