The Order of St John and Boer War group of four awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Jocelyn Charles Gore, 6th Earl of Arran, K.P., P.C., Royal Horse Guards, Lord Mayor of Belfast and Lord Chamberlain to H.M. Queen Mary, one of the last two surviving non-Royal Knights of St Patrick

Order of St John of Jerusalem, Officer’s breast badge, silver and enamel; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 4 clasps, Cape Colony, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, Wittebergen (Captain A. J. C. Earl of Arran, R.H.G.); Coronation 1911; Turkey, Order of the Medjidie, 4th class breast badge, silver, gold, and enamels, mounted court-style together with mounted miniatures of the first three and four various ribbon bars, good very fine (4) £2,400-£2,800

Provenance: Earl of Arran Collection, Spink, 2003; Dix Noonan Webb, December 2008.

Arthur Jocelyn Charles Gore, son of the 5th Earl of Arran and the Hon. Edith, daughter of Viscount Jocelyn, was born in 1868. He was appointed 2nd Lieutenant, Royal Horse Guards, in 1889, becoming Lieutenant in 1892 and Captain in 1895.

He was known as Viscount Sudley until 1901, when he succeeded to the Earldom upon the death of his father.

He served for a while attached to the Egyptian Cavalry (Order of Medjidie, invalided), and served in South Africa during the Boer War with the Royal Horse Guards (Bt. Major, Queen’s medal 4 clasps). He was subsequently Brigadier Commanding all Officers’ Training Corps in Ireland 1909-12. He was invalided in 1914 and took no active part in the war.

During the Second World War he raised and commanded the St Mawes Home Guard. The Earl of Arran was invested a Knight Companion of the Order of St Patrick on 13 December 1909, the fourth member of his family to be so honoured.

After partition in 1921, the Earl’s house was one of many to be burnt down and he removed with his family to live in England. At the time of his death, on 19 December 1958, he was one of the last two surviving non-royal Knights of St Patrick.