United States of America, Soldier’s Medal, bronze, the reverse engraved ‘Winston F. C. Guest 037718 U.S.M.C.’, with riband bar and lapel device, in case of issue, nearly extremely fine £70-£90

Winston Frederick Churchill Guest was born in New York on 20 May 1906, the son of the British Liberal politician Freddie Guest and his American wife Amy Phipps. His maternal grandfather was Henry Phipps, the philanthropist and former business partner of the industrial magnate Andrew Carnegie, whilst his great-grandfather was John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough; consequently, he was the first cousin once removed of Winston Churchill. A noted international polo player (his father having won an Olympic bronze medal for polo), he won the Intercollegiate Championship whilst at Yale in 1926, and won the U.S. Open three times, and the Argentine Open once. Ranked at 10 goals (the highest ranking a polo player can attain) both indoors and outdoors, he regularly played throughout the 1930s in England with the Duke of York (later H.M. King George VI). In 1936 he stood unsuccessfully for the United States Senate as a Republican for his home state of New York.

Guest served as a Captain with the United States Marine Corps during the Second World War, and was awarded the Soldier’s Medal for braving a heavily mined airfield at Canton to land an Allied humanitarian aid team on 19 August 1945, before the Japanese had officially surrendered. He died in New York on 25 October 1982.

Sold with a photographic image of the recipient; and copied research.