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Auction: 7012 - Orders, Decorations, Medals & Militaria
Lot: 1023

Egypt 1882-89, dated, no clasps (Lieut: R.H. Dawson. 1/Manch: R.), initial officially corrected, very fine Estimate £ 180-220 Captain Reginald Harry Dawson (1862-92), educated at Cheltenham College and Sandhurst; commissioned Second Lieutenant Manchester Regiment, 1881; served in Egypt in 1882 before transferring to the Madras Staff Corps, 1883; Captain 1891 and was a Wing Officer of the newly formed Hong Kong Battalion (composed of Sikh and other Indian troops) when he embarked on the ill-fated S.S. Bokhara in 1892, the sinking of which was chronicled in The Times, ´The China Mail which arrived here today brings the first detailed news of the loss of the Bokhara the P. & O. Steamer which was wrecked on Sand Island, Pescadores, on Sunday Oct. 16th. A Hong Kong journal contains the following graphic description of the wreck by Dr. Lowson who with Lt. Markham was among the small band of 23 persons saved... "The ship was sailing at the rate of 14 knots towards the evening the sea became very rough.... The first lifeboat was swept away in spite of all the efforts that were made to secure it..... a quarter of an hour later the deck smoking room was swept clean away by the waves. Shortly afterwards a tremendous sea destroyed three starboard lifeboats.... in the evening three tremendous seas came aboard... all the fires were extinguished the water also swamped the saloon.... at twenty minutes to twelve a tremendous sea sent the vessel on her beam ends. She quickly righted but almost immediately there followed a dreadful crash upon the rocks... I seized two lifebelts giving one to Captain Dunn and shouting -hurry up!, we have only a few seconds. Several people shouted where are the lifebelts...... The passengers were standing mute and dazed at the bottom of the saloon companion way saying last farewells to one another. Mr. Purvis was in the cabin with a bad knee. Lt. Burnett was also in the cabin and Captain Dawson was trying on a lifeboat in the saloon.´; the Bokhara sank rapidly taking approximately 122 passengers and crew down with her; Dawson was part of a 13 man squad for the Hong Kong Cricket team returning from a match against a Shanghai XI, only 2 of the squad survived the ordeal with the rest, including Dawson, being lost at sea.

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£300