Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare Second World War Burma operations D.S.O. group of five awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel R. M. V. “Roddy” Ponsonby, Devonshire Regiment (Reserve of Officers), attached 2nd Nigeria Regiment, Royal West African Frontier Force, late Welsh Guards, who won an immediate award for his courage and leadership in a crucial six day action in the Arakan in late 1944

Distinguished Service Order, G.VI.R. 1st issue, silver-gilt and enamel, the reverse of the suspension bar officially dated ‘1945’; 1939-45 Star; Burma Star; Defence and War Medals, M.I.D. oakleaf, mounted as worn, very fine and better (5)
£2800-3200

D.S.O. London Gazette 22 March 1945. The original recommendation for an immediate award states:

‘On 16 December 1944, this officer received orders to cross the Kalapanzin, a tidal river 300 yards wide, with his Battalion, and establish a bridgehead across the Saimgdin Chaung, also tidal and 100 yards wide, and some five miles below the Kalapanzin crossing. By nightfall, Lieutenant-Colonel Ponsonby had a bridgehead of two companies across the Saimgdin, in spite of many natural difficulties and accurate enemy shell fire. The enemy reacted strongly to this bridgehead but after two attacks had failed to dislodge them. Lieutenant-Colonel Ponsonby led two companies round the enemy’s flank and although greatly hampered by tidal chaungs and deep mud, succeeded in encircling the enemy who was forced to evacuate his position. It was entirely due to this officer’s personal example, energy, unswerving devotion to duty and determination not to be daunted by obstacles, that he inspired all ranks under him during six critical days to achieve eventual success.’

Roderick Maurice Victor “Roddy” Ponsonby was born in 1900, the seventh son of Colonel Justinian Ponsonby and a cousin of the Earl of Bessborough, and was educated at Wellington. Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant on the Special Reserve of Officers at the end of August 1918, he joined the Welsh Guards on gaining a regular commission in 1920 and served in Egypt. Seconded for service as an Assistant Superintendent, Army Physical Training, in September 1923, Ponsonby rose to be Superintendent of Army Physical Training in London before being placed on the Retired List in the 1930s. Having retained an appointment in the Devonshire Regiment on the Reserve of Officers in the interim, he was recalled on the renewal of hostilities, and by 1944 was Commanding Officer of the 2nd Nigeria Regiment, Royal West African Frontier Force, in the Arakan - ‘passing the monsoon high up in the hills above the sources of the Kaladan River in country so wild that an entire British regiment was said to have disappeared there without trace during the war of 1824’ (Colonel Michael Hickey’s The Unforgettable Army refers). Here, then, the setting for Ponsonby’s subsequent award of the D.S.O., for deeds as cited above.

A keen horseman and yachtsman, Ponsonby went into the manufacturing business after the War, and died in 1968. His daughter, Joan, exhibited at the R.A.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including the recipient’s D.S.O. warrant, dated 22 March 1945; his commission warrants for the rank of 2nd Lieutenant (Special Reserve of Officers), dated 22 August 1918, 2nd Lieutenant (Land Forces), dated 19 June 1920, and 2nd Lieutenant (Home Guard), dated 13 November 1952, this latter with related certificate of service for the period 1952-55; three excellent quality Welsh Guards’ officer group photographs from the 1920s, including the recipient on the occasion of a visit from the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII), and one or two R.W.A.F.F. images from the 1939-45 War; together with two sets of old uniform ribands and his R.W.A.F.F. uniform patches.