The unusual Great War D.S.O. group of four awarded to Major R. T. Meadows, Royal Army Medical Corps, for his services ‘on the occasion of the mining of a Hospital Ship’ - He earlier served as Mayor of Saltash, receiving the Mayors and Provosts 1902 Coronation Medal

Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel, complete with brooch bar; British War and Victory Medals (Capt.); Coronation 1902, Mayor and Provost’s issue, silver, unnamed as issued, good very fine and better (4) £1800-2200

D.S.O. London Gazette 14 June 1917. ‘.... for gallantry and meritorious service on the occasion of the mining of a Hospital Ship.’

Robert Thornton Meadows was born in Toronto in 1863. He studied Medicine at the University of Edinburgh and was entered onto the Medical Register on 8 September 1885. He qualified as M.D. at Edinburgh in 1892 and gained a Diploma in Public Health from the Royal College of Physician Surgeons of England in 1895. In May 1888 he was appointed Acting Surgeon with the 2nd Volunteer Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry; being ranked as Surgeon (Captain) in July 1888. By 1893 he had become the Medical Officer of Health for Saltash, Cornwall and in 1897 he became the first Captain of the newly formed Saltash Volunteer Fire Brigade, a post he held until 1912. Meadows served as Mayor of Saltash, November 1897-November 1899, and again during, November 1901-November 1902. As such, he was awarded the special Coronation Medal 1902 given to mayors and provosts.

In the London Gazette dated 20 September 1915, he was recalled from the Reserve and appointed a Temporary Major in the R.A.M.C., his appointment dated 30 August 1915. He was awarded the D.S.O. in the London Gazette of 14 June 1917 for his gallantry and meritorious service on the occasion of the mining of an unnamed Hospital Ship. It is possible the ship in question was H.M.H.S. Britannic (Titanic’s sister ship) but this requires further research to confirm. He received the D.S.O. from the King at Buckingham Palace on 25 February 1920.

After the war he returned to his medical practice in Saltash. Major Meadows died on 19 September 1937 and was buried in St. Stephen’s Churchyard, Saltash.

With copied research including a photocopied photograph of Meadows as Mayor.