Orders, Decorations and Medals

British War Medal 1914-20 (Major Sir F. P. Fletcher-Vane. Bt.) edge bruising, good very fine £140-180

Francis Patrick Fletcher Vane was born in Dublin on 16 October 1861 and was educated at the Oxford Military College. He was a Lieutenant in the Worcester Militia and Scots Guards, 1878-83 and Lieutenant in the Submarine Mining Regiment, 1883-87. He raised the first Corps of Working Boys Cadets in 1886. As a Captain he commanded the 26th Middlesex Cyclists in 1888. A member of Lloyd’s in 1891; with Sir Charles Rich, Bt., and Sir Lambton Loraine, Bt., he promoted the Council of Baronetage, 1897. Volunteering for the Boer War, he served as a Captain in the 3rd battalion Royal Lancashire Regiment and was a Transport Officer graded as a Staff Captain. He was afterwards in command of a Transport Company (graded as a D.A.A.G.) and was Commandant at Karree and Glen, 1901. At Karree he raised a force of loyal Burghers, 1901. Appointed an Honorary Captain in the Regular Army in 1901, he was awarded the Queen’s medal with three clasps and the King’s medal with two. In 1908 he succeded his cousin as the 5th Baronet Fletcher-Vane of Hutton Hall (created 1786). Sir Francis was an early aide of Lord Baden-Powell's and a Scout Commissioner of London before Baden-Powell ousted him from the Scout Association. He later founded the Order of World Scouts, the earliest multinational Scouting movement, and is counted one of the founders of Scouting in Italy, becoming their Inspector-General. Volunteering for service in the Great War, he was with the French Army at Belfort, 1914 and was a recruiting officer at Grantham. Appointed a Major in Royal Munster Fusiliers in September 1914, he later served in Ireland and took part in the supression of the Irish Rebellion. He was in charge of defence at Portobello Barracks in Dublin during the Easter Uprising but was not present at the time of the ‘Portobello Murders’. He tried to have Captain Bowen-Colhurst arrested for the murder of Francis Sheehy Skeffington but his arrest only occurred after Vane took leave and went to London and reported directly to the War Office. As a result of his actions Vane was sacked from the army. (Bowen-Colhurst, being court martialled was found guilty of three murders; declared unsound of mind, he was sent briefly to Broadmoor) Sir Francis was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, he became a Knight Commander of the Order of Christ in 1889; stood as the Liberal candidate for Burton-on-Trent in the 1906 election, was J.P. for Cumberland 1909, and was the author of several publications. He married twice, firstly in 1888 to Anna Oliphant, 3rd daughter of Baron de Costa Ricci, and secondly in 1927 to Kathleen Crosbie. He died on 10 June 1934. Sold with some copied research.