Orders, Decorations and Medals

A fine Victorian C.B. group of seven awarded to Colonel B. B. Connolly, Army Medical Department, who was thrice “mentioned” in a career that encompassed service as Principal Medical Officer of the Cavalry Brigade at El-Teb and Tamaai and command of the Camel Bearer Company in the Gordon Relief Expedition

The Most Honourable Order of The Bath, C.B. (Military) Companion’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel; India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Jowaki 1877-8 (Surgeon, Army Medical Dept.), surname spelt ‘Conolly’; South Africa 1877-79, no clasp (Surgeon, A.M. Dept.); Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, dated reverse, 4 clasps, Tel-el-Kebir, Suakin 1884, El-Teb-Tamaai, The Nile 1884-85 (Surgeon, A.M. Dept.); Turkey, Order of Osmania, 4th Class breast badge, silver, gold and enamel, with rosette on riband; Khedive’s Star 1882; France, War Commemorative Medal 1870-71, bronze, the whole contained in an old glass-fronted wooden display case, minor contact marks, very fine and better (7) £2500-3000

Benjamin Bloomfield Connolly was born on 10 September 1845, the son of the Rev. J. C. Connolly, late Chaplain, R.N. and Vicar of Brook, Norwich. Educated at the Merchant Taylors’ School and at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he gained a B.A., M.A. and M.D., and at Guy’s Hospital, London, where he gained the F.R.C.S., Connolly went on to serve on the side of the French in the Franco-Prussian War, namely at Beaumont and Briey in September-December 1870 - Who’s Who states that he was awarded the relevant Medal.

Appointed an Assistant Surgeon on the Staff of the Army Medical Department on 30 September 1871, he served with the 40th Regiment from August 1872, and, having been advanced to Surgeon, was present in operations against the Jowaki Afridis during 1877-78, and present in the Zulu War of 1879. Further active service ensued in the Egypt War of 1882, for which he was specially promoted to Surgeon-Major, and afterwards in the Eastern Sudan, when he was present at the battles of El-Teb and Tamaai, as Principal Medical Officer of the Cavalry Brigade, actions for which he was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 6 May 1884), and awarded the Order of Osmania (London Gazette 6 October 1885). On the Nile Expedition 1884-85, he was commander of the Camel Bearer Company and was present in an attack made on a convoy of wounded, again being mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 25 August 1885).

Appointed a F.R.C.S.I. in 1889 and promoted to Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel in April 1891, Connolly was placed on Retired Pay on 21 October the same year. Re-employed, he was promoted to Colonel in October 1902 for his services at Woolwich during the course of the Boer War and was awarded the C.B. in 1900. And he was still active at the time of the Great War when he was employed as A.D.M.S. for Sussex and brought to the notice of the Secretary of State for War ‘for valuable services rendered in connection with the European War’ in September 1917. The Colonel, who settled on the south coast, died on 20 June 1924; sold with assorted research including a photocopied photograph of the recipient, in uniform, wearing his awards which include a C.B. breast badge, but no Franco-Prussian War Medal.