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. Bar: 'WITU 1890'. Inscription on edge: 'W.J.BODLEY. ORD. H.M.S.BOADICEA'.1 Spare piece ribbon.

William John Bodley (1871-1952) was born in Croydon. His father, also William Bodley, was a joiner. William John worked for a fishmonger before joining the Royal Navy as a boy 2nd class on 28 March 1887. After training, he briefly served on HMS ‘Turquoise’ during early 1889, which was employed suppressing the slave trade on behalf of the Sultan of Zanzibar.
In March that year he transferred to ‘Boadicea’, the flagship of Admiral E R Freemantle on the East Indies Station. In 1890, Ordinary Seaman Bodley took part a punitive expedition against Sultan Fumo Bakari ibn Ahmad of Witu - in present day Kenya. This followed the killing of nine German traders. Boat crews from the ‘Boadicea’, ‘Cossack’ and ‘Brisk’ burned the villages of Baltia and Mkunumbi. A force consisting of a naval brigade, Indian Police and Zanzibari troops then marched on the town of Witu, which was captured and burned.
From August 1891 to May 1893, Bodley served on the troopship ‘Euphrates’, then on the screw yacht tender ‘Wildfire’. In early 1896 he was in ‘Victor Emmanuel’ the receiving ship at Hong Kong, then in HMS ‘Edgar’. Although he had signed up for twelve years’ service in 1889, he bought his way out of the service in 1896. For the rest of his working life he was employed by the London Salvage Corps. Largely staffed by ex-naval personnel, this body was maintained by Fire Insurance Companies to prevent further damage to premises and goods following fires.

Bodley married Emma Elizabeth Walker on 24 July 1898 and the couple had one daughter. He remarried Alice W Cogan in 1933.