Orders, Decorations and Medals

A Great War M.C. group of five awarded to Reverend W. Drury, Army Chaplains Department

Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed as issued; Queen’s South Africa 1899-19023 clasps, Cape Colony, Transvaal, South Africa 1902 (Rev., C. to F.); 1914 Star (Rev., A.C.D.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. (Rev.), mounted as worn, good very fine and better (5) £1200-1500

M.C. London Gazette 23 June 1915.

M.I.D. London Gazette 22 June 1915; 4 January 1917; 15 May 1917.

William Drury was born in Burton, Staffordshire on 19 June 1876, the son of William Frederick Drury, Vicar of Holy Trinity, Burton, and Elizabeth Hannah Drury. He was baptised by his father on 12 July 1876. Educated at Christ’s Hospital, 1885-92, he then attended Corpus Christi College, Cambridge where he gained a B.A. in 1898, and the following year he attended Ridley Hall, Theological College, Cambridge and was ordained a Deacon. Serving as the Curate of St. Thomas’s, Birmingham, 1899-1901, he was ordained a Priest at Worcester in 1900. During 1901-04 he was employed as an Acting Chaplain to the Forces in South Africa. He was then posted as Chaplain to the Forces at Woolwich, 1905-08, gaining a M.A. in 1906; Singapore, 1908-11; Aldershot, 1912-13 and Crownhill, 1913-14. With the outbreak of war, he served with the B.E.F., 1914-17, being Assistant to the Principal Chaplain B.E.F., 1914-15 and Deputy Chaplain General, 1916-18. For his wartime services he was awarded the Military Cross and three times mentioned in despatches. Drury was then appointed Chaplain to the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, 1918-23 and then Chaplain at Shorncliffe, 1923-25. After attachment to the Office of the Diocese of Cantabury, 1925-26, he was appointed Curate of Storrington, 1926-27, after which he was appointed Rector of Binstead in the Diocese of Chichester. He died at Binstead Rectory on 24 October 1943.

Sold with a folder containing a substantial quantity of copied research and photographs on the recipient and his service at home and abroad, and another containing published articles based on the letters of the Rev. William Drury - these mainly relate to his service and experiences in the Boer War. For the recipient’s miniature medals, see lot 924.