ORDERS, DECORATIONS AND MILITARY MEDALS, Single British Campaign Medals, The Very Rare Royal Navy Abu Klea Casualty Egypt Medal awarded to Able Seaman F.G. Nye. Comprising Egypt Medal 1882-89, undated reverse, with two clasps, The Nile 1884-85, Abu Klea (F.G. Nye A.B. ). Toned, extremely fine and rare. £3500-4000
The action at Abu Klea on 17 January 1888 lasted but little over ten minutes, a period of total confusion. The small Naval Brigade, totalling just 40 men under Lord Charles Beresford, with its Gardner machine gun, was posted inside the square, at one corner behind the Heavies (4th & 5th Dragoons, Scots Greys and Royal Dragoons) when the action commenced, Beresford quite naturally wanted to get his Gardner gun out into the open, beyond the square as obviously it could not be brought into action from the inside. On orders from Colonel Burnaby, numbers 3 and 4 companies of the Heavies were to open up and let the machine gun through. This manoeuvre, which may sound simple, in fact involved the movement of some 200 men and took place at the exact moment when the initial shock-wave of Dervishes hit these two companies of dismounted cavalrymen. The Gardner, as was its wont, jammed almost immediately and all its crew except Lord Beresford were killed. Able Seaman Frederick Nye was himself killed although it is not known if he was a member of the gun’s crew. The Naval Brigade had in total eight killed and seven wounded at Abu Klea.
Born Islington, Middlesex, 1 February 1860, Frederick Nye first served as a Boy 2nd Class aboard HMS Fisgard joining the ship on 10 August 1875. He subsequently served aboard HMS Impregnable (1875-1877), where he was advanced to Boy 1st Class during August 1876; Ruby (1877-1880) where he was made Ordinary Seaman in February 1878, and advanced to Able Seaman whilst in Naval Barracks during January 1881, Alexandra (1883-1884) and finally borne on the books of Monarch for the Nile flotilla. He was killed in Action 17 January 1885 at Abu Klea.
Sold with copy Service Papers and Naval Medal Roll for Abu Klea.
ex Douglas-Morris Collection, DNW auction, 16 October 1996, lot 335
ex DNW auction, 18 May 2011, lot 248
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder