An inter-war O.B.E. group of six attributed to Major George Norman Croker, M.C., Australian Engineers - latterly Deputy Chief Engineer of the Sudan Irrigation Department

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Civil) Officer’s 1st type breast badge, silver-gilt, hallmarks for London 1926; Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed copy; 1914-15 Star; British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf, these three with naming erased, mounted as worn; Egypt, Order of the Nile, 3rd Class neck badge by Lattes, Cairo, silver, silver-gilt and enamel, with neck cravat, in case and card sleeve of issue; together with a mounted set of six miniature dress medals as above, good very fine and better (lot) £300-400

O.B.E. London Gazette 27 September 1932. ‘George Norman Croker, Esq., M.C., Deputy Chief Engineer, Sudan Irrigation Department.

M.C. London Gazette 11 January 1916; Commonwealth of Australia Gazette 6 April 1916.

George Norman Croker was born at St. Arnaud, Victoria on 28 May 1887. A Civil Engineer by occupation, he attested for the 3rd Field Company Field Engineers, A.I.F. on 18 August 1914, aged 27 years. Enlisting as a Sapper, he was promoted to Sergeant in September 1914 and proceeded overseas. Commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in May 1915, he was advanced to Lieutenant in July 1915 and appointed Lieutenant and Adjutant of the 3rd Divisional Engineers, July 1916 and Captain and Adjutant in October 1916-March 1917. Appointed Captain of the 16th Field Company in March 1917; Captain of the 1st Army Troops Company Australian Engineers in November 1917; ranked as Temporary Major in May 1918 and advanced to that rank in October 1918.

Serving in Gallipoli, he was wounded in the shoulder by shrapnel and was admitted to hospital on 1 May 1915. Rejoining his unit on 26 May, he was admitted to hospital due to enteric fever on 28 September and was invalided to Gibraltar and thence to England. For his bravery in action in Gallipoli he was awarded the M.C. - a report in his papers suggests it was for gallant work during the night of 31 July/1 August in connection with the capture of a Turkish trench. Making a recovery, he was posted to France in November 1916-March 1917 and November 1917-May 1918.

Between the wars he served as Deputy Chief Engineer in the Sudan Irrigation Department and was rewarded with the O.B.E. and Order of the Nile for his sterling work in the Blue Nile Irrigation and Canal Project. It is highly likely that his original M.C. and Great War Medals went missing at this time and were replaced by the above, courtesy of the Army & Navy Department Store.

With ‘permission to wear’ for the Order of the Nile 3rd Class, dated 17 September 1932; with associated letter from The Palace, Khartoum, dated 31 March 1931; Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers document named to ‘George Norman Croker, O.B.E., M.C.’, dated March 1932; with a number of other original papers; with original O.B.E. case of issue, with associated card; full-size medals in card box from the Army & Navy Stores Ltd., Victoria Street, London, S.W.1, addressed to ‘G. N. Croker Esq., Goodrich Court, Hereford’; together with a bronze seated figure of Pharaoh Amenemhat III, 20.5cm. high, the back inscribed (name engraved) ‘Souvenir of the Inauguration of the Gezira Irrigation Project January 1926 Presented by Ransomes & Rapier Ltd. suppliers of The Sluice Gates to G. N. Croker’; a bronze desk plaque, 21 x 11cm., commemorating the ‘Blue Nile and Gezira Irrigation, Sudan’, illustrating the Sennar Dam and Canalisation, constructed for the Sudan Government by S. Pearson & Son Ltd.; Molesworths’ Pocket Book of Engineering Formulæ, 29th edition, contained in a leather case inscribed in gilt, ‘G. N. Croker’; signed photograph of Croker in military uniform wearing his M.C. ribbon; leather wallet; map showing a portion of the Blue Nile and the plans for the Gezira Canal.

With copied gazette extracts and service papers. For his brother’s M.C., see lot 1359.