A Great War O.B.E. group of five awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel C. Crosskey, Army Service Corps, late Warwickshire Rifle Volunteer Corps and Staffordshire Volunteer Infantry

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 1st type breast badge, silver-gilt, hallmarks for London 1919; 1914-15 Star (Major C. Crosskey, A.S.C.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Lt. Col. C. Crosskey); Volunteer Decoration, E.VII.R., silver, silver-gilt, hallmarks for London 1913, complete with upper riband bar, together with a watch fob, silver, gold centre, the reverse inscribed to ‘Lieut. L. H. Crosskey, 5th Bn. The R. War. R., 1924’, and a white metal commemorative medallion, good very fine (7) £400-500

Cecil Crosskey was born in Glasgow in 1859, the son of Dr. W. H. Crosskey, but ‘lived most of his eighty-six years in Birmingham’. Educated at Edgbaston Proprietary School, he pursued a legal career and was for many years Deputy Clerk of the Peace in the Second Court of Quarter Sessions, Birmingham. His legal profession aside, Crosskey also pursued a career in the Volunteer Forces:

‘Colonel Crosskey’s first association with military activities was as an officer in the Warwickshire Volunteers. He was awarded the Volunteer Decoration in 1906. In 1886-7 he was with the Staffordshire Mounted Infantry and was appointed Supply and Transport Officer to the Staffordshire Infantry Volunteer Brigade.

In 1903 he raised and trained the Army Service Corps company of the Staffordshire Volunteers - the first A.S.C. company to be formed. He retired in 1907, but in 1911 he joined the National Reserve. On the declaration of war in August 1914, he was called upon by the Warwickshire Territorial Association to organise a second line headquarters company of the A.S.C., and this he carried out and trained the company.

In October 1915, he was sent to France to the first line headquarters company, 48th Division, of which he took command. He was twice mentioned in despatches. In June 1919, he was made an Officer of the Military Division of the British Empire. On his return home he continued as a military member of the Warwickshire Territorial Forces Association’. He was a Deputy Lieutenant of Warwickshire (a local newspaper obituary, refers).

He died in September 1945; sold with a newspaper obituary cutting and several modern day photographs of his family grave.