Orders, Decorations and Medals

A fine Great War ‘Festubert’ M.C. group of eleven awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel A. G. Graham, Scottish Rifles, later Pioneer Corps: having survived the decimation of the 6th Battalion at Festubert in May 1915, he added the American Medal of Freedom to his accolades in the 1939-45 War and later still volunteered for service as a Police Reservist in the Mau Mau troubles

Military Cross, G.V.R., the reverse privately inscribed, ‘Major A. G. Graham, Scottish Rifles, June, 1915’; 1914-15 Star (Capt. A. G. Graham, Sco. Rif.); British War and Victory Medals, with small M.I.D. oakleaf (Lt. Col. A. G. Graham); 1939-45 Star; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, with M.I.D. oakleaf; Africa General Service 1902-56, 1 clasp, Kenya (E. 1020 Sp. (R.) A. G. Graham, M.C.); Coronation 1953; U.S.A., Medal of Freedom, with palm, cleaned overall, very fine or better (11) £1600-1800

M.C. London Gazette 14 January 1916.

U.S.A. Medal of Freedom London Gazette 23 May 1947. The original recommendation states:

‘Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Graham, M.C., Pioneer Corps, British Army, Allied Commission, Region Venezie: for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services in Italy from 23 September 1943 to 8 May 1945.

While serving with 46th Division, British Army, on the Garigliano River front in the winter of 1944, Lieutenant-Colonel Graham distinguished himself as a Civil Affairs Officer, in an area immediately under fire. He and one American enlisted man evacuated 350 civilians from the town of Rocci di Vandro, over a mule track covered with two feet of snow. It was an operation that required 14 hours, under continuous shell and mortar fire. The party which he evacuated included 14 stretcher cases, two typhus cases which died on the way out, and one woman who gave birth to a child during the progress of the operation. The evacuation was necessary for the improvement of the military situation and this officer, with great courage and fearlessness, overcoming almost insurmountable difficulties, made a contribution to the progress of the Allied Army that reflected great credit on the Allied Military Government organization, and the American Brigadier-General under whom he served.

With great poise and understanding, Lieutenant-Colonel Graham trained a number of American officers in the field, who later became outstanding members of the Allied Military Government organisation.

As Civil Affairs Officer of Tivoli, Lieutenant-Colonel Graham encountered one of the most difficult situations to be found in the wake of the advancing Army. There were 18,000 people living in caves, no food had come into the town for 14 days and there were 700 unburied dead in the town square. With energy and efficiency, he and his American associates set at once to the task of making the place inhabitable and preventing an epidemic of disease. Within an incredibly short time, order had been brought out of the chaos and the town restored to a point where the homeless were able to return.

Subsequently as Civil Affairs Officer he contributed in large measure to the restoration of the port of Civitavecchia, vastly important from a military standpoint. He also served efficiently as Commissioner for the provinces of Terni and Rovigo, where he restored industry, maintained order and administered an outstanding public welfare programme.

With deep understanding, wide experience, and personal generosity, Lieutenant-Colonel Graham was of inestimable value to the American officers attached to Allied Military Government. His service reflected great credit on the joint efforts of the British and American armies to administer the affairs of civilian Italy in such a way as to be of value to the military operations. Lieutenant-Colonel Graham originally entered the service from Glasgow, Scotland.’

Alexander Gillespie Graham, a pre-war officer on the Special Reserve, first entered the French theatre of war as a Captain in the 6th Battalion, Cameronians in March 1915, which unit was decimated at Festubert that June, when it sustained 357 casualties in a bloody assault launched on the 15th – the Germans having taunted the Scotsmen by shouting across No Man’s Land “Come on, Jocks, we are waiting for you.”

At 5.57 p.m. that evening, in skeleton marching order, the 6th Battalion went over the top and swept towards the fully alerted Germans, the bombers and leading platoon reaching the opposing front trench before the first of many enemy bombardments started to take their toll. Ultimately, in the face of point-blank machine-gun fire, the Cameronian ranks started to dwindle. In the words of the regimental history, ‘nothing but grim determination to close with the enemy could have carried the men forward in the face of such massacre’. But close they did.

Although the enemy’s front trench was occupied by superior numbers, the assault never faltered. It was rushed and taken with the bayonet, the once confident Germans fleeing in terror. Some, it is said, pleaded for their lives with presents and money, but to no avail, the Scotsmen bayoneting and bombing their way down the communication trenches to the second line, which, before dark, had been taken. By now, just three officers were left standing.

Meanwhile, as a result of the failure of a neighbouring attack by 7th Division, the Cameronians were left exposed on their left flank, and when this shortcoming was compounded by the failure of G.H.Q. to send in reinforcements, the Battalion’s position became perilous in the extreme. While on their right, the 1/4th Loyal North Lancashires had been ordered to retire by midnight, thereby leaving the Scotsmen as sole inhabitants of the recently captured ground – unbeknown to this gallant party of survivors, they, too, were meant to have been withdrawn, but the order never reached them, and it was not until 4 a.m. that a few ranks were able to get back to our lines.

Among the wounded was Graham, though only slightly so, for, as revealed by the relevant war diary, he rejoined his unit from hospital 24 hours later and assumed command ‘of what remained of the Battalion.’ Mentioned in Sir John French’s despatch that October (London Gazette 1 January 1916 refers), by which date he was a Temporary Major, Graham was awarded the M.C.

Recalled on the renewal of hostilities in September 1939, he was granted an Emergency Commission in the Pioneer Corps and, as cited above, was awarded the American Medal of Freedom for his gallant and distinguished services in Italy 1943-45, in addition to winning a “mention” (London Gazette 23 May 1946 refers). Later still, as evidenced by his Africa General Service Medal, he volunteered for service as Special Constable in the Mau Mau troubles in Kenya.

Sold with research.