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Auction: 20002 - Orders, Decorations, Medals & Space Exploration
Lot: 131

The interesting Africa General Service Medal awarded to A. C. Douglas, Niger Coast Protectorate, Colonial Office and City of London Police Reserve, a long-served Political Officer and District Commissioner who served during the Benin and Aro Expeditions and who wrote the notable Niger Memories covering his times in West Africa under the nom de plume Nemo

Africa General Service 1902-56, 2 clasps, Aro 1901-1902, S. Nigeria 1903 (A. C. Douglas, Political Officer), officially re-engraved naming, very fine

Archibald Campbell Douglas was born on 30 December 1872, son of Admiral Sir Archibald Douglas, G.C.B., who assisted in the founding of the Japanese Navy. Educated and Radley and the Oxford Military College, he was a member of Lincoln's Inn and qualified in 1889. Entering the Colonial Office he saw service in West Africa from 1894-1909. Douglas served as Transport Officer during the Benin Expedition in 1898 (Medal & clasp) and also in the punitive expedition to Kwa Ibo (Bula) in February-March 1899. He would latterly serve as Political Officer to the Aro Expedition (Medal & clasp) and in South Nigeria in 1903 (clasp). Those latter operations in the Eket district were in country well known to Douglas for he had served in that region since 1898. The operations officially lasted between 16-25 September 1903 (A.O.1/1906 refers). The trouble began at Okwa on September 24 when Captain E.L. Roddy, leading the advance party, was shot in the leg. Douglas recalled:

'Although severely wounded and suffering from loss of blood, he held his ground until relieved by Captain Hume, who then led the advance. The enemy firing with great determination on the column subsequently killed two men and wounded nine others.'

That situation required all his nouse to diffuse and he subsequently handed over political control of the region to E.C. Crewe-Read. His twin brother Offley Stuart Crewe-Read was murdered by natives in June 1906, with the whole matter being recently investigated in three parts of The Journal of the Royal West African Frontier Force. Douglas recalled of the pair:

'Read had a twin brother who was appointed at the same time, and he poor fellow, was killed by natives in the Benin country. [Douglas] had never met the twin brother; but this one to whom he handed over the political affairs of the district; he got to know quite intimately before he left for home. This was a red-haired youth, rather quick tempered and impetuous, but in every way a Sahib, and although new to the country, he had his own ideas about how natives should be treated generally, and Ekets in particular.'

Retired to England in 1909, Douglas was called to the Bar in 1912 and served as a Magistrate across the globe for the next twenty years. During the Great War he served with the City of London Police Reserve (Medal) and was appointed British Judge at Tangiers in 1927. Latterly Consul at Port Limon, 1928-29, he was on the North London Sessions and Central Crimial Court, before going out to serve in the West Indies at the Colonial Bar.

Having published Niger Memories in 1927 and a biography of his father he also wrote widely on subjects regarding the West Indies (at Jamaica and Grenada) and West Africa. A member of the African Society, the Royal Empire Society, The Japan Society, Authors Club, Cecil Club, The Knights of the Round Table, Seven Seas, Bar Yacht Club, he was also a keen shot, fly fisherman and sailor. Douglas died at Old Buildings, Lincoln's Inn on 12 December 1943; sold together with a recently bound copy of Niger Memories, besides copied research.

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Sold for
£400

Starting price
£320