Campaign Groups and Pairs Talbot later mentions his own experience of Fosbery:


‘....A narrow creek separates Effiatt Island from the mainland, and a short way down this, to the right, lies a stretch of sand just raised above the mangrove swamp. To this, in olden days, all small-pox sufferers were sent, and little heaps of broken pots may still be seen placed there as offerings to the Juju. This scourge was very prevalent in the neighbourhood, and when an epidemic swept through it is said that the crocodiles were quick to hear the news "They gathered round the little beach, attracted by the horrible smell of the disease. In the night time they used to creep up to the houses and seize sick people out of their beds, knowing that such were helpless and could not defend themselves. Leopards, on the contrary, appear to avoid towns on which this scourge has fallen, as the smell offends their nostrils."


Right through Effiatt runs another new creek, unmapped before our arrival. This leads to Akwa Obio Effiatt, the home of the great Oboyemi Juju, on which the prosperity of the town depends and which, the inhabitants say, gives them "life." A great carved ivory tusk lies in its shrine. Farther south is the mouth of Widenham Creek, named after a former Provincial Commissioner, Mr. Widenham Fosbery, to whom I and mine owe many a kindness. Into this creek flows that of Inua Abassi (God's Mouth) leading to the town of the same name. In the mud opposite the entrance of this little waterway a strong post is to be seen, to which in the old days a human sacrifice was annually bound, to be drowned by the rising tide, at the beginning of the fishing season. In these degenerate days only a goat may be offered....’


Fosbery also served as Acting Governor, before being appointed H.B.M.’s Consul for the Cameroons in 1910. He was commissioned a Lieutenant in the Territorial Force Reserve, and served as a Staff Captain 1915-16. Fosbery was appointed a Captain in the Royal Defence Corps in December 1916, and served as a Temporary Major and Assistant Supervising Officer in 1918 (not entitled to Great War Medals). He relinquished his commission in December 1919, and died in February 1935.


C.B.E. London Gazette 1 June 1953. M.I.D. London Gazette 11 November 1943 (North Africa), the original recommendation (for an O.B.E.) states:


‘Until my arrival at A.F.H.Q. on March 25 1943, Brig Fosbery was the British Deputy to the American Chief Engineer, Allied Forces. The fact that he was considerably junior to both the Chief Engineer First Army and the Director of Works did not make his already heavy task any lighter.


The very excellent relations that were found existing on my arrival, between the British and Americans in this Section, and amongst the senior British Engineer officers is very largely due to his sound common sense, tact and judgement. His work has been very arduous and he has made a real success of it, never sparing himself. He has set a very high standard of devotion to duty.


The excellent working liason between this officer and the French Engineers both military and civil, can truthfully be said to owe a great deal to Brig Fosbery and the excellent terms on which he stands with them. Brig Fosbery has done a great deal towards cementing a United Allied front in so far as the Engineers - British, American and French are concerned.’


Francis Charles Widenham Fosbery was born in July 1899, and was a Cadet at the Royal Military Academy prior to being commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, June 1918. He subsequently served with the 4th Burma Sappers and Miners, and advanced to Captain in June 1929. Fosbery served as a Staff Officer, Royal Engineers in India during 1930s, and advanced to Major in June 1938. He served in North Africa during the Second War, and advanced to Lieutenant-Colonel in March 1944. Fosbery advanced to Colonel in April 1946, and to Brigadier in September 1951. He retired in January 1955.


324


Five: Shipwright F. A. W. Bennett, Royal Navy, who was killed when H.M.S. Seagull was in collision with another ship in the Firth of Clyde in September 1918


Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, no clasp (F. A. W. Bennett, Car. Crew. H.M.S. Pearl.); 1914-15 Star (344302. F. A. W. Bennett. Shpt. 1, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (344302. F. A. W. Bennett. Shpt. 1. R.N.); Royal Navy L.S. & G. C., G.V.R., 1st issue (344302. F. A. W. Bennett. Shpt. 1Cl. H.M.S. Seagull.) good very fine or better (5)


£280-£320 Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, June 2008.


Frederick Albert William Bennett was born in Plymouth on 11 February 1878. A Carpenter by occupation, he entered the Royal Navy as Carpenters Crew based at Vivid II on 3 July 1901. Posted then to the cruiser Pearl, he served aboard her from December 1901 to November 1904, qualifying for the Q.S.A. Medal without clasp (189 awarded) and being advanced to Shipwright in April 1903. He was promoted to Leading Shipwright in October 1905 when on the Blake and Shipwright 1st Class in August 1914 when on the Warrior. Serving aboard the minesweeper Seagull from October 1915, he was accidentally killed on 30 September 1918, when the Seagull was sunk in a collision, probably with the steamship Corrib, in the Clyde. His name is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial. Sold with copied record of service and copied newspaper extract with obituary.


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