A rare Waziristan 1923-24 operations D.S.O., Second World War O.B.E. group of eight awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel H. H. Daw, Royal Engineers, late Middlesex Regiment and Royal Fusiliers

Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel; The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge; British War Medal 1914-20 (Capt. H. H. Daw); India General Service 1908-35, 3 clasps, Afghanistan N.W.F. 1919, Waziristan 1919-21, Waziristan 1921-24, M.I.D. oak leaf (Lieut. H. H. R. E.(sic) Daw, M.W.S.); War Medal 1939-45; India Service Medal 1939-45; Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937, mounted as worn, generally good very fine (8) £2000-2500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Bill and Angela Strong Medal Collection.

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D.S.O. London Gazette 13 March 1925.

O.B.E. London Gazette 11 July 1940.



Harold Henry Daw was born in Alderney in the Channel Islands in 1885, the son of a Lieutenant & Q.M. in the Middlesex Regiment, and enlisted in his father’s regiment as a boy recruit in June 1900, aged 15 years. Attaining the rank of Corporal in March 1904, he was seconded to Roorkee College in India in October of the following year and thence to the Unattached List (U.L.) of the Military Works Services in October 1907. Transferring from the U.L. to the 2nd Battalion, Royal Fusiliers in November 1912, he remained employed out in India, and was commissioned in the Royal Engineers in May 1918.

Daw was subsequently mentioned in despatches and awarded the D.S.O. for his distinguished services in the Waziristan operations in the period April 1923 to March 1924, and added the O.B.E. to his accolades for his services as a G.S.O. 1 in H.Q. Eastern Command, India in 1939-40.

He returned to the U.K. in November 1942, when he was placed on the Retired List, and settled in Broughton in Hampshire.