A very rare Great War M.C. and Sudan campaign D.C.M. group of nine awarded to Captain William Russell, Royal Marine Artillery
Military Cross, G.V.R., the reverse inscribed (Capt., R.M.A. 1917); Distinguished Conduct Medal, V.R. (Cr.Sgt., R.M.A.); Queen’s Sudan 1896 (-651 Sgt., R.M.A.); 1914 Star (R.M.A. 3651 Bk.Qr.Mr.Sergt., R.M. Brigade); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. (Capt., R.M.); Naval L.S. & G.C., E.VII.R. (Colr. Sergt. No. 3651 R.M.A.); French Croix de Guerre 1914-1917; Khedive’s Sudan 1896-1908, 1 clasp, Sudan 1897, unnamed as issued, the earlier medals with contact wear, therefore nearly very fine or better (9)

M.C. London Gazette 3 June, 1918.
D.C.M. Recommendation submitted to the Queen 16 May, 1899 (AO 153/99). Medal presented by the Queen at Windsor Castle on 1 July, 1899. A photograph of Russell was published in Navy and Army Illustrated for 29 July, 1899.
M.I.D. London Gazette 11 December, 1917.
Croix de Guerre London Gazette 5 April, 1918.
William Russell joined the Royal Marine Artillery on 4 September, 1888, and was promoted Corporal in 1893, and Sergeant in 1894. He was employed with the Egyptian Army from 1 July, 1897, as one of nine R.M.A. Gunnery Instructors with the naval detachment on the Nile. Russell was aboard the gunboat Fateh commanded by Lieutenant (later Admiral of the Fleet) David Beatty. In March 1898 this gunboat returned with the news that Sergeant Russell had been wounded: “He was on watch, standing on an elevated platform, recently erected on deck to enable us to look over the banks, and when steaming past Kitiab, where the stream shears close into the right bank, some of the enemy’s snipers suddenly opened fire from the thick bush at that spot, and Sergeant Russell was hit in the right leg, just below the knee, fracturing the bone. He is doing very well, and has every comfort and attention; all the officers are much concerned, and most of the have been to see him, General Hunter sent him his own tent from Berber.”
Russell was one of five R.M.A. mentioned in Egyptian Army Orders of May 29th, 1898, as having been brought to the notice of the Khedive for good service, the D.C.M. subsequently being awarded to four of them including Russell. He was promoted Colour-Sergeant, 11 December, 1898, and Barrack Quarter-Master-Sergeant, 22 July, 1907; discharged to Pension, 3 September, 1909, but mobilised for further service on 2 August, 1914. Russell served with the Royal Marine Brigade at Ostende and Dunkirk in 1914, and was commissioned T/Lieutenant, 23 March, 1916, taking command of the R.M.A. Anti-Aircraft Battery, Nieuport Sector, at the end of 1917. Here he remained for the rest of the war, being awarded the only Military Cross won by the Anti-Aircraft Brigade. He was made Acting Captain on 30 May, 1918, and in March 1919 was appointed to command the Forts on the Asiatic Shores of the Bosphorus. Russell was placed on the retired list, as Captain, in January 1920, and died on 9 April, 1952.