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Auction: 24002 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 97

Pair: Captain H. W. O. Knox-Fletcher, 4th (Uganda) Battalion, King's African Rifles and East Lancashire Regiment, who died as a result of blackwater fever whilst attempting to save the lives of suffering brother officers on an elephant shooting expedition in 1906

India General Service 1895-1908, 1 clasp, Relief of Chitral 1895 (2nd Lieut H. W. Fletcher. 1st. Bn. E. Lanc: Regt.); Africa General Service 1902-56, 1 clasp, Somaliland 1902-04 (Capt: H. W. O. Fletcher. E. Lanc: Regt. & K. A. Rif:), high-relief bust on this last, very fine (2)

Henry William Overstreet Knox-Fletcher was born at Dublin in December 1867, the son of Reverend J. J. Knox-Fletcher, Rector of Whittlebury, Northampton. Having been commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the East Lancashire Regiment, he was attached to the 4th (Uganda) Battalion, King's African Rifles in August 1896. Promoted Captain on 25 May 1902, he served as a Company Commander during the Somaliland operations. With fellow Officers of the King's African Rifles, Fletcher was present for an elephant shooting expedition around Nimule during May 1906. When three of their party began suffering from blackwater fever, he had attempted to assist those taken ill, but himself caught the fever and died on 24 May 1906, aged just 38 (Northampton Mercury, 1 June 1906 and Clifton Society, 7 June 1906 refer).

The AGS previously sold in these rooms as a single in July 2018 and since reunited with his IGS.

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Sold for
£700

Starting price
£400