Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Great War M.C. group of eleven awarded to Brigadier R. A. Austin, Royal Army Medical Corps

Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed; 1914-15 Star (Capt., R.A.M.C.); British War and Victory Medals (Major); India General Service 1908-35, 1 clasp, Waziristan 1919-21 (Capt., R.A.M.C.); 1939-45 Star; Africa Star, 8th Army clasp; War Medal 1939-45; Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937; Coronation 1953, first five with contact marks, nearly very fine and better (11) £900-1000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals to the Medical Services formed by Colonel D.G.B. Riddick.

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M.C. London Gazette 25 November 1916. ‘Capt., R.A.M.C.’ ‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He tended and dressed the wounded under very heavy fire with great courage and determination. He has previously done very fine work’.

Richard Andrew Austin was born in Londonderry on 25 October 1892. He qualified as a L.R.C.P. & S.I. and L.M. at the College of Surgeons, Dublin in 1914. In September 1914 he joined the Army as Lieutenant in the R.A.M.C. He saw service in Gallipoli, 1915-16, Egypt, February-June 1916 and France, 1916-19; ending the war as an Acting Major and with the award of an M.C. Postwar he served in India, 1919-22; Sierra Leone, 1925-26 and 1927-28; India, 1932-37. Promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in September 1937, he was Chief Instructor and 2 I.C. of the R.A.M.C. Depot, 1938-41. During the Second World War he served throughout with the M.E.F., ranked as Acting Colonel, October 1941 and Temporary Colonel, April 1942, being promoted to Colonel in October 1943 and holding the ranks of Acting Brigadier, February-April 1942 and Temporary Brigadier, September 1942-January 1943. With the M.E.F. he was D.S.M.S. H.Q. Northern Lines of Communication, 1941-42; D.D.M.S. H.Q. 10 & 30 Corps, 1942-43 and A.D.M.S. H.Q. 16 Area, 1943-45. He was later A.D.M.S. H.Q. West District, 1946-47 and P.S.M.B. London District, 1947-49 and Eastern Command, 1949-55. Austin retired with the honorary rank of Brigadier on 29 May 1955. He died in hospital on 28 December 1968 after sustaining severe injuries from a motor-cycle on 9 December. Sold with copied research.