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Lot Essay
Sold with an interesting quantity of original documentation, including the recipient's working manuscript for his booklet, The Siege of Peking Legations, largely written aboard the S.S. Wuku, off Taku in late 1900, together with an old copy of the printed version (Privately published, 1913); a selection of Chinese Warrants and British 'Licence to Wear' Warrants, the latter including the Chinese Dragon (dated 3.6.1909), and Second and Third Class Excellent Crop (dated 15.9.1924 and 23.6.1915 respectively); Inspectorate-General of Customs' forwarding letter for the recipient's China 1900 Medal (dated at Peking, 15.1.1903); a large framed photograph of Chinese Maritime Customs employees, with the recipient centre stage; and embroidered case of issue for a Golden Grain Star.
John Horatio Macoun of Kilmore, Lurgan, Co. Armagh, was born in 1867 and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and tried a banking career prior to joining the Imperial Chinese Customs, the international service which administered the Treaty Ports. Leaving Ireland aged 22 years, he first worked in Shanghai where he became a member of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps, training that was to stand him in good stead when forced to fight in defence of the Peking Legations.
Macoun entered the British Legation on 20.6.1900, following general unrest and the treacherous murder of German Minister Baron von Ketteler, and with the rest of the younger Customs men paraded for duty as an 'active volunteer'. In his 16-page privately printed account of the siege, written in November 1900, Macoun relates, 'Shortly after we came in we were sent to assist in repelling the Chinese attack over the north bridge. Lying on the roof of a house and firing over the top was my first experience of fire. I confess I was somewhat startled when a shot struck the roof just in front of me! We successfully occupied posts in the Students' Library, Students' Quarters, the Hanlin, the Su Fu, the First Secretary's House, the Mongol Market, etc.' On 12 July Macoun was wounded defending the Su Wang Fu, which place saw some of the fiercest fighting. 'The defence of the Su Fu', he reported, 'which the Japanese at first undertook alone, was probably one of the finest sustained efforts made during the siege, and also one of the most skilful. As the Chinese broke down the outer wall of this enclosure, a series of barricades was erected in the buildings inside. The buildings were burned, and more barricades and trenches were prepared. These were held, though at great loss of life, till the Relief arrived. During, the greater part of the time Italians and British Marines and Volunteers assisted the Japanese'. Of his fellow Imperial Customs men Macoun wrote:
'As regards my own Corps of Volunteers, they would be at duty at one post after another, two or three (sometimes four) days at a time without a complete night's rest. The impossibility of getting anything more than a broken rest at night was what tried men most, and at most posts this was always the case. The Chinese generally made attacks at night, and varied them from one hour to another on different nights. One night a man would be on his post alone, only some twenty yards or so from where the Chinese were posted. Not a movement or a sign of anything! The night is dark, and listening is the only means of discovering the movements of the Chinese. Suddenly in the distance he hears the horns of the Chinese troops. Then the dogs bark, and the barking gradually comes nearer. All at once there is a regular pandemonium! Rifles seemed to be fired at the shortest range all around him. The bricks of his barricade are knocked out, chips fly about, bullets seem to whistle past him in every direction, the buildings begin to rattle with the deluge of shot thrown against him! The remaining men of the post are rudely awakened from their fitful sleep - at a run they take up their posts at the loopholes to his right and left. There everyone stands watching keenly with rifle to shoulder...'
For his services in the siege Macoun was specially recommended by Sir Claude MacDonald in the following terms: 'Mr. Macoun was for sometime in charge of the Customs Contingent, arranged their roster, and was himself unceasingly on duty in the dangerous Prince Su's Park or West Hanlin. He was an indefatigable worker. He was wounded in the thigh by a bullet in Prince Su's Park on 12 July, and, though lame from the effects, cheerfully resumed his duties after a week's rest'.
Despite his experiences in the Boxer Rebellion, Macoun developed a great affection for China and the Chinese, and served a total of 40 years in the country. On his retirement he expressed an intention to remain in China and see out his final years as a Buddhist monk. But his wife managed to persuade him that his duty was to his family and reluctantly he returned to Britain. During the London Blitz he and his wife were bombed out of their flat, and after a brief stay in Hertfordshire, settled in County Down where Macoun lived until his death at the age of 81 years in 1948.
John Horatio Macoun of Kilmore, Lurgan, Co. Armagh, was born in 1867 and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and tried a banking career prior to joining the Imperial Chinese Customs, the international service which administered the Treaty Ports. Leaving Ireland aged 22 years, he first worked in Shanghai where he became a member of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps, training that was to stand him in good stead when forced to fight in defence of the Peking Legations.
Macoun entered the British Legation on 20.6.1900, following general unrest and the treacherous murder of German Minister Baron von Ketteler, and with the rest of the younger Customs men paraded for duty as an 'active volunteer'. In his 16-page privately printed account of the siege, written in November 1900, Macoun relates, 'Shortly after we came in we were sent to assist in repelling the Chinese attack over the north bridge. Lying on the roof of a house and firing over the top was my first experience of fire. I confess I was somewhat startled when a shot struck the roof just in front of me! We successfully occupied posts in the Students' Library, Students' Quarters, the Hanlin, the Su Fu, the First Secretary's House, the Mongol Market, etc.' On 12 July Macoun was wounded defending the Su Wang Fu, which place saw some of the fiercest fighting. 'The defence of the Su Fu', he reported, 'which the Japanese at first undertook alone, was probably one of the finest sustained efforts made during the siege, and also one of the most skilful. As the Chinese broke down the outer wall of this enclosure, a series of barricades was erected in the buildings inside. The buildings were burned, and more barricades and trenches were prepared. These were held, though at great loss of life, till the Relief arrived. During, the greater part of the time Italians and British Marines and Volunteers assisted the Japanese'. Of his fellow Imperial Customs men Macoun wrote:
'As regards my own Corps of Volunteers, they would be at duty at one post after another, two or three (sometimes four) days at a time without a complete night's rest. The impossibility of getting anything more than a broken rest at night was what tried men most, and at most posts this was always the case. The Chinese generally made attacks at night, and varied them from one hour to another on different nights. One night a man would be on his post alone, only some twenty yards or so from where the Chinese were posted. Not a movement or a sign of anything! The night is dark, and listening is the only means of discovering the movements of the Chinese. Suddenly in the distance he hears the horns of the Chinese troops. Then the dogs bark, and the barking gradually comes nearer. All at once there is a regular pandemonium! Rifles seemed to be fired at the shortest range all around him. The bricks of his barricade are knocked out, chips fly about, bullets seem to whistle past him in every direction, the buildings begin to rattle with the deluge of shot thrown against him! The remaining men of the post are rudely awakened from their fitful sleep - at a run they take up their posts at the loopholes to his right and left. There everyone stands watching keenly with rifle to shoulder...'
For his services in the siege Macoun was specially recommended by Sir Claude MacDonald in the following terms: 'Mr. Macoun was for sometime in charge of the Customs Contingent, arranged their roster, and was himself unceasingly on duty in the dangerous Prince Su's Park or West Hanlin. He was an indefatigable worker. He was wounded in the thigh by a bullet in Prince Su's Park on 12 July, and, though lame from the effects, cheerfully resumed his duties after a week's rest'.
Despite his experiences in the Boxer Rebellion, Macoun developed a great affection for China and the Chinese, and served a total of 40 years in the country. On his retirement he expressed an intention to remain in China and see out his final years as a Buddhist monk. But his wife managed to persuade him that his duty was to his family and reluctantly he returned to Britain. During the London Blitz he and his wife were bombed out of their flat, and after a brief stay in Hertfordshire, settled in County Down where Macoun lived until his death at the age of 81 years in 1948.