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Auction: 18003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 333

An impressive and notable Africa General Service pair awarded to W. C. Syer, Colonial Service, Nigeria and latterly British Resident of that country at the time of the 1918 operations, late Captain, Jamaica Militia

Africa General Service 1902-56, E.VII.R., 3 clasps, Aro 1901-1902, S. Nigeria 1903-04, S. Nigeria 1904 (Ast. Dist. Commr. W. C. Syer, Aro. F.F.), officially engraved naming; Africa General Service 1902-56, G.V.R., 1 clasp, Nigeria 1918 (W. C. Syer), officially impressed naming, mounted as worn, one or two edge bruises, otherwise generally good very fine, an unusual ‘double issue’ and most likely a unique combination of awards (2)

Provenance:
Ex-Richard Magor Collection, July 2003.

7 'Nigeria' clasps issued to the Governor and Nigerian Civil Service.

William Chevalier Syer was born in June 1873, the second son of Reverend Barrington Blomfield Syer, rector of Kedington, Suffolk. Having been educated at Eastbourne College, he was appointed a Lieutenant in the Jamaica Militia in 1897, and advanced to Captain in 1900, he attended the School of Musketry at Hythe in the following year.

Syer appears to have arrived on the African scene as an Assistant District Commissioner in Southern Nigeria in June 1901, an appointment that was followed by a stint as an Acting D.C. at Degema between January and October 1902. During this period he was actively engaged in the Aro operations, acting as a Transport Officer in No. 2 column of the Aro Field Force. Syer once again took to the field in the 1903-04 troubles in Southern Nigeria, and served as a Political Officer to the Ekpaffia Field Force in late 1904.

He returned to Jamaica and was married at the Scotch Church, Kingston before gaining his first appointment as a District Commissioner in April 1905, enjoying a successful career out in Nigeria. Eventually being appointed the British Resident, he established the first General Hospital at Ogoja in 1915, to meet the needs for treatment for tuberculosis and general surgery in the region. It was while employed in this latter capacity that he won entitlement to the ‘Nigeria 1918’ clasp, when he took to the field as a Political and Intelligence Officer in the provinces of Abeokute and Ijebu-Ode, and came into contact with the rebels.

Syer died in Jamaica on 27 July 1945 and is buried in Kedington, Suffolk.

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Sold for
£2,600