Lot Archive

Lot

№ 397

.

26 June 2008

Hammer Price:
£240

Volunteer Officers’ Decoration, V.R. cypher, reverse inscribed, ‘Leonard Boor, Hony. Surgeon, Nelson City Rifle Vols.’, hallmarks for London 1894, complete with brooch bar, extremely fine £180-220

Captain G.T. Stagg, R.N.Z.A. in The Long Service Medals Awarded in the New Zealand Army 1887-1957 records that 54 Volunteer Officers’ Decorations were awarded in New Zealand, of which 45 were Victoria issues. J.M.A. Tamplin in The Volunteer Officers’ Decoration records 51 recipients traced, including that to Boor. Note: All New Zealand awards bore the cypher ‘V.R’ and not the expected ‘V.R.I.’ as issued to officers outside the United Kingdom.

Leonard Boor gained the Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries, London, 1851 and became a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, England, 1852. In the
New Zealand Army List of 1866 he is recorded as Surgeon of the Wellington Militia (2nd Hutt Battalion) from August 1863. He was later resident at Nelson where he was Public Vaccinator. He was awarded the V.D. on 22 November 1894 as ‘Brigade Surgeon L. Boor, General Medical List N.Z. Vols., and Hon. Surgeon Nelson City Rifle Vols.’ With some copied research.