Orders, Decorations and Medals

General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Kurdistan (Lieut. N. F. Brittan), officially re-impressed naming, very fine £150-200

Norman Frank Brittan was born at Stamford Hill, London in December 1887 and was educated at King’s Middle School, Warwick. Having then onetime served as a Gunner in the 1st City of London R.G.A. (Volunteer Force), and for just a day or two in the 2/28th London Regiment (The Artists Rifles) in December 1915 - when he was quickly placed on the Army Reserve - he was mobilized in early 1917. Accepted for admission to No. 21 Officer Cadet Battalion in the Artists Rifles in June of the same year, he was commissioned into the 7th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment that September, but did not go overseas until November 1918, when he was embarked for India with the 1/9th Middlesex - he was consequently not entitled to the British War & Victory Medals (his MIC entry refers).

In May 1919, with advent of hostilities against the Kurdish chief Sheik Mahmoud, Brittan was attached to the 1/5th East Surreys, and was duly employed on active service in the Kirkuk theatre of operations, where he was wounded by a gunshot in the left foot on 16 June 1919. Initially admitted to a military hospital in Baghdad, he finally rejoined the East Surreys as a newly promoted Lieutenant in September of the same year, but shortly afterwards was struck off the strength of the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force and embarked for England.