Auction Catalogue

24 & 25 June 2009

Starting at 2:00 PM

.

Orders, Decorations and Medals

Washington Mayfair Hotel  London  W1J 5HE

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Lot

№ 503

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25 June 2009

Hammer Price:
£360

A military O.B.E. group of three awarded to Honorary Major Francis Gordon Griffith, North Western Railway Battalion, Auxiliary Forces India

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 1st type breast badge, silver-gilt, hallmarks for London 1919; British War Medal 1914-20 (2-Lieut.); Efficiency Decoration, G.V.R., India, reverse engraved, ‘Capt. F. G. Griffith, N.W. Ry. Bn., A.F.I.’, mounted court style for wear, nearly extremely fine (3) £240-280

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

View Long Service Medals from the Collection formed by John Tamplin

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Collection

M.B.E. London Gazette 1 January 1923. ‘Lieutenant Francis Gordon Griffith, The North-Western Railway Regiment, Auxiliary Forces, India. (Dated 30th December, 1922)’

O.B.E. London Gazette 3 July 1926. ‘Lieutenant Francis Gordon Griffith, M.B.E., North Western Railway Regiment, Auxiliary Force, India’.

Francis Gordon Griffith was born in Southampton on 23 November 1889. He spent his working life in the Indian Railway Service, joining the North Western Railway in 1913 as an Assistant Traffic Superintendent. In 1918 he was Officiating as District Traffic Superintendent at Lahore, and a year later was appointed to that position. In March 1920 he was appointed Concentration Officer of the Railway Board at Simla. For these services, whilst serving as a Lieutenant in the North Western Railway Regiment, he was awarded the M.B.E. After further military employment he was promoted to an O.B.E. in 1926. In 1929 he was appointed Statistical Officer in the Agents Office at Lahore, in 1932; becoming in 1944, Divisional Superintendent, Regional Controller Railway Priorities, at Lahore. He retired the same year.

In the Volunteers he was first commissioned on 11 July 1916. On 1 April 1917 he was appointed a 2nd Lieutenant in the 1/24th North Western Railway Battalion. He was advanced to Lieutenant in October 1920 and Captain in July 1926. As such he was awarded the Efficiency Decoration (India), the award published in the Gazette of India of 16 March 1935. Later granted the honorary rank of Major, he was transferred to the General List, A.F.(I) on 31 March 1938. After his retirement he returned to England and died at Clacton-on-Sea on 31 December 1973. Sold with copied research.