The extremely rare West Africa campaign service group of four awarded to Commander Virgoe...

The extremely rare West Africa campaign service group of four awarded to Commander Virgoe Buckland, R.D., Royal Naval Reserve and Mercantile Marine; having been awarded the ‘1899’ clasp to his East and West Africa Medal for his command of a naval rocket detachment in the Bulu Expedition, he added a unique naval officer’s award of the Africa General Service Medal to his accolades for his part in the North Nigeria operations in 1904 East and West Africa 1887-1900, 2 clasps, Benin 1897, 1899 (V. Buckland. Act. Lieut. R.N.R., H.M.S. Phoebe.); Africa General Service 1902-56, 1 clasp, N. Nigeria 1904 (Lieut. V. Buckland. R.N.R.); British War Medal 1914-20 (Commr. V. Buckland. R.N.R.); Royal Naval Reserve Decoration, G.V.R., the reverse hallmarked London 1918, good very fine or better (4) £2,600-£3,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- Provenance: Alan Hall Collection, June 2000. Virgoe Buckland was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia on 17 February 1866, and first went to sea in the Mercantile Marine in the early 1880s. Having then obtained his Master’s certificate in January 1893, he joined the Royal Naval Reserve as a Sub. Lieutenant in October 1895. Advanced to Acting Lieutenant on passing his gunnery and torpedo courses, Buckland was appointed to H.M.S. Phoebe on the Cape of Good Hope and West Coast of Africa stations in August 1896, in which capacity he was attached to the Naval Brigade in Rear-Admiral Rawson’s punitive expedition to Benin in the following year. Remaining employed off West Africa, and having briefly served in the Sparrow and Fox, he commanded the steam yacht Ivy in the Niger Coast Protectorate in 1898-99, when he came ashore with charge of a small rocket detachment in the Bula Expedition against Chief Olog Bosheri. The latter, who had been responsible for the murder of Consul J. R. Phillips in Benin in 1897, was captured, tried and hanged; Buckland added the rare ‘1899’ clasp to his East and West Africa Medal. In the following year he was appointed Assistant Marine Superintendent in Niger Coast Protectorate, in which capacity he took part in the expedition against rebellious tribes at the head of the Benue River around Yola, and thus became entitled to the Africa General Service Medal with clasp ‘N. Nigeria 1904’. Advanced to Commander in November 1905, Buckland was placed on the Retied List at his own request in February 1907, but he was recalled in the Great War ‘for special service with the Nigerian Marine’. He remained likewise employed for the duration of the war and was awarded the British War Medal 1914-20, in addition to the Reserve Decoration in 1919. He died on 8 May 1949, aged 83.