East & West Africa Medal 1887-99

Obverse: Head of Queen Victoria in a diadem and veil (left). Legend: 'VICTORIA REGINA'. Reverse: a group of soldiers and Africans fighting in the bush for their fallen comrades. Suspended from a bar, and yellow ribbon with a broad black edge and two narrow black central stripes. Bars: 'LIWONDI 1893'. Inscription on edge: 'J.E. POWNALL, A.B. H.M.S. MOSQUITO'.

John Edwin Pownall (1866-1914) was born at Shifnal in Shropshire, the son of Samuel Pownall a confectioner. He entered the Royal Navy as a boy 2nd Class on 6 September 1881, being made ordinary seaman on 1 April 1884 in HMS ‘Defence’ - a guard ship on the Mersey. Pownall was based in home waters until 24 February 1885, when he joined HMS ‘Raleigh’, the flagship of Rear-Admiral Walter James Hunt-Grubbe on the Cape of Good Hope and West Africa station, until her recommissioning in June 1888. During this time, he was rated Able Seaman. He returned to South Africa in December 1889 on the books of HMS ‘Penelope’ a receiving ship at the Cape, then in ‘Swallow’. In ‘Mosquito’ from 7 April 1892 to 30 June 1893, he received a rare bar to the East & West Africa medal, for participation in a small military expedition to relieve the force of the British Commissioner Harry H. Johnson, which was beleaguered in the territory of Chief Liwonde (now in present day Malawi). Pownall’s last voyage was in HMS ‘Crescent’ which was transporting relief crews out to Sydney, Australia in 1894 after which his period of naval service ended.
He married Amelia Mary Griffiths in Wellington, Shropshire in 1902 and settled in St George’s, Shropshire working as a boiler tender, probably for the nearby Lilleshall engineering company.