Description
East and West Africa 1887-1900, bar Sierra Leone 1898-99, 642 Private James Momo, West African Regiment.
Officially impressed: “642 Pte James Momo. W.A.R.”
Confirmed on the medal roll, which notes he served during the Sierra Leone campaign with “G” Company of the West African Regiment.
Good preserved condition.
An interesting medal being the very first earned by the newly formed “West African Regiment” which was specially raised as a Single battalion Regiment in Sierra Leone during 1898, in order to defend Freetown, the major British Naval base in the region.
The War that resulted in this clasp was known as the “Hut Tax War of 1898”, a resistance in the newly annexed Protectorate of Sierra Leone following a new tax being imposed by the Colonial Governor.
Two substantial revolts occurred in the region in result to the tax, “Bai Bureh’s Revolt” and the “Mende Revolt”.
The rebellion had been of of Britain’s larger colonial campaigns fought in West Africa during the Victorian Era.
Apart from their support units and a small 280 Man Naval Brigade, the bulk of the fighting landed on the locally employed colonial forces, consisting of the newly formed West Africa Regiment, detachments from the West India Regiments, the Sierra Leone Frontier Police and locally employed African Levies.
The British Colonial Force would suffer 67 killed and 184 wounded during the rebellion, in addition to further 90 deaths of African porters and an unknown number of casualties taken by the African Levies.
The defeat in the Hut Tax War ended any large scale organised Armed opposition to colonialism in Sierra Leone, cementing Britain’s power in the country.
However they would take up resistance in other forms, including wide scale rioting and chaotic labour disturbances for many years afterwards until they received their Independence in 1961.
