Lot 2323

Description

Pair: Egypt Medal 1882 - bar - The Nile 1884-85; Khedives Star 1884-6. 38 Boat:L.Talbot, Caughnawaga Det. Very fine.

With research. In 1886 the Canadian Voyageurs - three hundred and seventy seven Canadian civilian boatmen and their seven officers and eight `wheelsmen' were each awarded the Egypt Medal and the Khedive's Star for their services during a Lord Wolseley's expedition to relieve General Gordon at Khartoum. Wolseley's plan called for the transport of part of his force by boat up the Nile River and, based upon his service in the 1870 Red River Expedition in Canada, he felt that Canadian boatmen has the necessary knowledge and experience to navigate successfully the treacherous cataracts of the Nile. Consequently, advertisements were placed in Canadian newspapers in August 1884 for `good boatmen . to accompany English Expedition up the Nile to steer boats through the rapids and do all necessary portaging'. The response came from Indians and white men alike, most of whom were normally engaged as raftsmen in the lumber trade in eastern Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba. They reported in Ottawa on 6 September 1884, received outfits and free rations and sailed from Quebec on 16 September under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick C.Denison. Although they remained civilians, the Voyageurs were subject to the authority of their foremen and of the officers of the Canadian Militia who accompanied them.