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Auction: 21002 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 91

An impressive campaign group of four awarded to Major A. P. Berthon, Royal Munster Fusiliers, mentioned in despatches for services in the Defence of Kumassi

Ashanti 1900, 1 clasp, Kumassi, high relief bust (Capt: A. P. Berthon. R.M. Fus:) officially impressed naming, erasure before rank; 1914-15 Star (Major A. P. Berthon. R. Muns. Fus.); British War and Victory Medals (Major A. P. Berthon), good very fine (4)

Alderson Preston Berthon was born in 1872 at Southend, Essex, son of Major-General Thomas Porter Berthon. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Munster Fusiliers on 9 September 1893, becoming Lieutenant in January 1896, and Captain in March 1906. He served in West Africa in 1900, was present during the operations in Ashanti, and took part in the defence of Kumassi.

With stores dwindling about the fate of the small band who had formed the defending party, Cassell's Battles of the 19th Century gives a good account of the breakout, in which Berthon shared:

'And so it came to pass that on the night of the 22nd June 1900, the order was silently circulated that at daybreak on the morrow the Exodus from Kumassi would be attempted.

Nature, hitherto so pitiless, for once was kind. A heavy morning mist hung low and veiled the withdrawal. It was a sad and tragic parting at dawn of day on the 23rd June, in the white, shivering morning mist, the lean, gaunt garrison of Kumassi, with its leaner, gaunter string of carriers, and its leanest, gauntest trail of tottering refugees, crept out of the fort, and silently vanished into the gloom of the great dripping forests. With what poignant feeling did those, who were leaving to seek safety, wave their hands, in what most must have feared was a last farewell, to the comrades they were abandoning. Comrades who had fought with them, shoulder to shoulder, in the sore strife of the last ten weeks! To the dauntless three, and their hundred trusty black followers, who, in this hour of appalling peril, rose to the wonderful level of the white man's heroism.

The evacuating force consisted of the Governor and Lady Hodgson; Major Morris, who was in command; Messrs. Marshall, Digan, Aplin, Armitage, Parmeter, Leggett, Berthon, Cochrane and Reade, all officers of the various military forces; Drs Garland, Chalmers, Tweedy and Graham, of the Medical Service; two mining engineers, Messrs. Baird and Grundy, of the Ashanti Company; a telgraph clerk; and the Basel Missionaries, viz. Mr and Mrs Ramseyer, Mr and Mrs Josy, Mrs Hoasis, and Mr Weller. Amongst the natives were the loyal Kings of Akwanta and N'Souta, with their followers. The column on the line of march extended over a length of two miles - and "like a wounded snake dragged its slow length along". In the centre, surrounded by a special guard, were the four ladies, whose admirable behaviour was worthy of all that is best and bravest.'

They left behind them a small garrison of two officers and a medical officer with about a hundred men, who were relieved by the relief force under Brigadier-General Sir J. Willcocks on the 15th July. Willcocks took away the sick and wounded and again left behind a small garrison.

Berthon had been photographed in the fort and it is no surprise that he was mentioned in the despatch of Major A. Morris, D.S.O., late Commanding Kumassi Garrison, to the Governor of the Gold Coast, dated 12 July 1900 and published in the London Gazette of 4 December 1900:

‘Assistant Inspector A. P. Berthon, Gold Coast Constabulary, looked after his men well, and was most energetic in shelling the various camps and working the rocket trough.’

Berthon remained on appointment with the Gold Coast Constabulary until 2 August 1904. He returned to the fold, by this time aged 43, to serve on Gallipoli as a Major with the 7th Battalion, Royal Munster Fusiliers. He was one of 28 original Officers to land at Suvla in August 1915. His Medals were addressed to 27 St Stephen's Square, W2 and the Reading War Hospital.

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Sold for
£3,200

Starting price
£1800