Orders, Decorations and Medals

Colonial Auxiliary Forces Officers’ Decoration, G.V.R., reverse engraved, ‘Capt. Charles Edward Hooke Hellis, Gold Coast Volrs.’, hallmarks for London 1918, lacking top bar, extremely fine £100-140

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Long Service Medals from the Collection formed by John Tamplin.

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Charles Edward Hooke Hellis was born in Kensington, London, on 20 September 1863. Educated at St. Mark’s College, London and a Grocer by occupation, he enlisted into the Border Regiment on 7 November 1883. With the 1st Battalion he served in India, February 1885-January 1890, and Burma, January-December 1890, serving in the Hazara Campaign and with the Tonhon Expedition, Burma, 1888-90. Attaining the rank of Colour Sergeant in December 1894, he was discharged, being medical unfit, on 6 November 1895. In 1901 Hellis was appointed a Temporary Clerk in the War Office and was promoted to a 2nd Division Clerk in 1902. On 29 December 1902 he was appointed Chief Clerk in the Colonial Secretary’s Office in the Gold Coast. In 1921 he attained the rank of Assistant Colonial Secretary in the Gold Coast.

Hellis was appointed a 2nd Lieutenant in the Gold Coast Volunteers on 30 October 1904. He was promoted to Lieutenant in April 1905 and was Acting Adjutant on several occasions to 1915. He was seconded for service with the Cameroon Expeditionary Force from 14 October 1915 when he was in charge of a detachment of the Gold Coast Volunteers until 19 December 1915. Hellis was appointed a Temporary 2nd Lieutenant in the Gold Coast Regiment, W.A.F.F., from 9 October 1916. He was later seconded for duty with the East African Contingent on 26 October 1916. He went to England on sick leave on 11 August 1917, and was seconded, on his return, for military duty on 3 December 1917. For his services in the Great War, Hellis received the 1914-15 Star, British War and Victory Medals. Captain Hellis, V.D., Assistant Colonial Secretary, retired on a pension on 31 December 1922. The award of the Colonial Auxiliary Forces Officers’ Decoration not found in the Gazette but is not in doubt. Sold with copied research.