A Great War ‘East Africa’ D.S.O., O.B.E. group of five awarded to Major P. Whiteley, South African Army Pay Corps

Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel, with integral top riband bar; The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 1st type breast badge, silver-gilt, hallmarks for London 1919; British War and Bilingual Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Mjr. P. Whiteley.); South Africa War Service Medal 1939-45, silver, unnamed as issued, good very fine (5) £1,000-£1,400

D.S.O. London Gazette 1 February 1917. Awarded for service in East Africa.

O.B.E. (Military) London Gazette 15 November 1918: ‘For services in operations in East Africa.’

M.I.D. not confirmed.

Percival Whiteley was later President of the Transvaal Society of Chartered Accountants. He was also one of the top members of the Boy Scout movement during the 1930’s and is well written up in a famous book A Separate Path - Scouting and Guiding in Interwar South Africa. He was against the joining of white and black scout troops in South Africa. A personal friend of Lord Baden Powell, he was awarded the top Scouting award, the Order of the Silver Wolf, in 1936.