Orders, Decorations and Medals

Eight: Major H. J. C. Albrecht, Intelligence Corps, late Hampshire Regiment and Machine Gun Corps

British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oakleaf (Lieut.); 1939-45 Star; Defence and War Medals; Coronation 1937; Special Constabulary Long Service, G.V.R., 1st issue (Sergt. Henry J. C. Albrecht); Portugal, Republic, Military Order of Aviz, Chevalier’s breast badge, silver and enamel, the medals (less the 3 W.W.2 medals) mounted as worn, in leather case, good very fine and better (8) £220-280

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of Brigadier Brian Parritt, C.B.E..

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M.I.D. London Gazette 31 July 1920

Portugal, Order of Aviz London Gazette 26 November 1919. ‘Temporary and Acting Lieutenant, Machine Gun Corps and Special List’.

Henry John Charles Albrecht was born on 10 January 1891 at Broom Hall, Saham Toney, a small village in Norfolk. He was educated at Dulwich College, in Brightlands House, between 1904 and 1908. He left when he was in the Lower 5th to join Gepps Ltd, an import export company. During his time with Gepps he travelled extensively abroad and became fluent in French, German, Portuguese and Spanish. With the onset of war Albrecht returned to England from Brazil and joined the Inns of Court O.T.C. in September 1915. In 1916 he was posted to the 7th Battalion Hampshire Regiment. At the end of 1916 he attended the O.T.C. at Bisley and was commissioned into the Machine Gun Corps. In August 1917 he entered France and after attending a Divisional Machine Gun Course, was posted to 204th thence 146th Machine Gun Company. In August 1917, because of his ability with languages, he was posted as a Liaison Officer to a Portuguese Division in the Portuguese Expeditionary Force. On 9th April 1918 Ludendorff launched the Lys (‘2nd Ludendorff’) Offensive, routing the Portuguese Expeditionary Force. During the battle Albrecht was captured and sent as a prisoner of war to Osnabruck. He managed to escape but was recaptured and sent to a camp near Cologne. For his gallantry in the battle he was awarded the Portuguese Military Order of Aviz and for his gallantry and subsequent escape, he was also mentioned in despatches. He left the Army in January 1919 with the rank of Lieutenant. Working for Gepps Ltd., he lived in Santos, Brazil until 1926, when he returned to England. Joining the Special Constabulary and serving at Vine Street, he attained the rank of Sub Inspector. In the late 1930’s he was the Manager of the Garrick Hotel in Charing Cross Road. Seeing the inevitability of a further major war, in August 1938 Albrecht wrote to Colonel Templar (later Field Marshal), who was then an Intelligence Staff Officer at the War Office, offering his services, citing his languages and his extensive travels as suitable qualifications. To further his cause, he invited Templar to dine with him at his hotel, adding as an inducement, “The hotel produce extremely good chops, but not on a Sunday’. Presumably Sunday was avoided and the chops lived up to their name, as in 1939 Albrecht attended an Intelligence Course at the War Office and the day before war began, he was called up into the Intelligence Corps and was posted to the 16 Internment Camp in Northern Ireland. On 8 January 1940 he attended No.5 Field Security Course at Mytchett and on 6 February 1940 went to France with the B.E.F. and served as a Field Security Officer at GHQ. On 21 June 1940 he was evacuated from Dunkirk and on 8 July reported for duty as the Intelligence Officer of 3rd Corps in Conway. On 10 July he was appointed Officer Commanding of 51 F.S.P. in Winchester and on 15 July 1940 was one of the first officers to be appointed to the newly formed Intelligence Corps. On the 7th July 1942 he was posted to be OC 306 FSS in the acting rank of Captain and remained in this post until 6th March 1945. No.306 FSS was based in 24 Ravelston Park, Edinburgh near the HQ of Scottish Command and, as well as its responsibilities for Security within the Command, was also responsible for the security of the Combined Operations Training Centre at Inverary. On the 6th March 1945 he left Edinburgh to join Force 134 in preparation for the liberation of Norway and on the 16th May 1945 he landed from a destroyer with twenty other officers and soldiers to be the Field Security Officer responsible for the security of the Tromso Zone. In this Zone, which was 400 miles long with poor communications, there were 140,000 armed Germans and 45,000 Russian Prisoners of War. He had been suffering for some time from varicose veins in his right leg and this was exacerbated by the pressure of work, and so on the 11th July 1945 he was sent home, first to the Intelligence Corps Depot at Rotherham and then to the Hospital at East Kilbride. In December 1945 he was classed as permanently unfit and in March 1946 he relinquished his commission. On the 5th March 1945 he was appointed an Honorary Major. On 16 March 1948 he was awarded the Norwegian King Haakon VII Freedom Medal (not in lot), ‘In recognition of distinguished services in the cause of the Allies’. At the time of the award he was living at The Granary, Farnborough Park, Farnborough, Hampshire. Sold with copied research.