Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Great War O.B.E. group of four awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel J. Bruce, Royal Army Medical Corps

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 Victory Medals (Lt. Col.); Territorial Decoration, G.V.R., unnamed, hallmarks for London 1920, complete with brooch bar; together with three bronze medallions: Edinburgh University Medal, 51mm., engraved, ‘John Bruce, Class of Mental Diseases 1888’; City of Edinburgh and Midlothian Rifle Association Medal, 37mm., unnamed; Astor County Cup Medal, 38mm., unnamed, good very fine (7) £260-300

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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O.B.E. London Gazette 3 June 1919.

John Bruce was educated at Kelso High School before studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He gained the M.B., C.M. in 1890. Commissioned a Captain in the R.A.M.C. in January 1915 and promoted to Major in February 1915 and Lieutenant-Colonel in January 1917. He was attached to the 2/1st East Lancashire Field Ambulance, July 1915-June 1919, and with the 29th Casualty Clearing Station, Bonn. During the war he was present at Third Ypres, Nieuport, Passchendaele, Somme and Courtrai and was twice mentioned in despatches and awarded the O.B.E.

Sold with original O.B.E. bestowal document (John Bruce Esquire Captain Acting Lieutenant-Colonel in Our Army Territorial Force); M.I.D. certificates (2) - 7 April 1918 and 16 March 1919 (both Haig); University of Edinbugh M.B. and M.Ch. diplomas; Medico-Psychological Association Certificate in Psychological Medicine and a (torn) letter of appreciation to the O.C. 2/1st East Lancashire Field Ambulance from the N.C.O’s. and men of the unit about to leave for Egypt, 28 July 1915.