Orders, Decorations and Medals

The impressive inter-war C.B., Great War C.M.G., D.S.O., Mesopotamian Insurrection 1920 C.B.E. group of fifteen awarded to Major-General C. J. B. Hay, Indian Army, onetime Queen Victoria’s Own Corps of Guides and 19th Punjabis

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, C.B. (Military), Companion’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel; The Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, C.M.G., Companion’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel; The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, C.B.E. (Military), Commander’s 1st type neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel; Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamels; The Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Commander’s neck badge, silvered-metal and enamel; India General Service 1895-1908, 3 clasps, Tirah 1897-98, Punjab Frontier 1897-98, Waziristan 1901-2 (2d Lieut. C. J. B. Hay, 2d Bn. Oxf. Lt. Infy.); 1914-15 Star (Capt. C. J. B. Hay); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Lt. Col. C. J. B. Hay); India General Service 1908-35, 1 clasp, Afghanistan N.W.F. 1919 (Lt. Col. C. J. B. Hay, 1/19/Pjbs.); General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Iraq (Col. C. J. B. Hay); Delhi Durbar 1911, privately inscribed, ‘Capt. C. J. B. Hay, Q.O. Corps of Guides’; Iraq, Order of El-Rafidain, 2nd class set of insignia, comprising breast badge, silver-gilt and enamel, with crown riband fitment, and breast star, silver-gilt and enamel; Iraq, King Feisal’s War Medal, with clasp, the D.S.O. with slightly chipped enamel and loose centre-pieces, the sixth with minor official correction to unit, clasp backstraps removed for mounting purposes, minor contact marks, otherwise generally very fine (15) £2800-3200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Brian Kieran Collection.

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C.B. London Gazette 1 March 1929.

C.M.G. London Gazette 3 March 1919.

C.B.E. London Gazette 9 September 1921.

D.S.O. London Gazette 14 January 1916.

Charles John Bruce Hay was born at Rous Leuch Court, near Evesham, in May 1877 and was educated at Wellington and the R.M.C. Sandhurst. Commissioned in August 1897, he served in the 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire Light Infantry, in the operations on the North West Frontier of 1897-98 (Medal & 2 clasps), and, having transferred to the Indian Army, as Assistant Superintendent of Army Signalling in the Jandola and Datta Khel columns during the Waziristan operations of 1901-02, the latter services being rewarded by a mention in despatches (G.G.O. 611 of 1902 refers), in addition to a third clasp to his Medal.

Advanced to Captain in August 1906, after attending Staff College, Hay was on deputation to the Canadian Militia 1909-10, but returned to India to take up appointment as an extra A.D.C. to the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal in time for the Durbar. Appointed D.A.A. and Q.M.G. in 1912, he lent valuable service during operations against the Mahsud Waziris in the same year, or certainly according to his senior officer:

‘One afternoon an S.O.S. message came in to say that Major Dodd, the Political Officer, and Captain Butler of the Guides, with a small escort, were cut off and besieged by several thousand Mahsud Waziris, in one of the frontier posts ... This post was 60 miles from Dera-Ismail-Khan, and it behoved us to get there as rapidly as possible, if we wished to save our comrades. Happily at the time the Brigade consisted not only of first-class staff troops, but was fortunate in having two first-class officers, Shea and Hay, Sheah-oh! and Hay-oh! as they were called. These two excellent fellows got the brigade, bag and baggage on the move before nightfall, and a wonderful march it made. Sixty miles is a longish trek even for cavalry, but for infantry carrying their packs, and for mules carrying guns, not to mention the pack animals carrying food and ammunition, it was indeed a great endeavour.

Yet they did it in one, just making short halts by the way for food and drink, and perhaps forty winks occasionally, by the wayside. At the end of those 60 miles to see the 27th Punjabis, and 45th Sikhs, scale the precipitous hills, to the rescue of their comrades, was indeed an inspiring sight. It was too much at any rate for the Mahsud Waziris, who though treble our strength, and armed with the latest rifles, broke and fled’ (Soldiering in India refers).

During the Great War, Hay served as Brigade-Major, 28th Infantry Brigade, 9th Scottish Division, 1914-15, as General Staff Officer, 12th Division, 1916-17, and in a similar capacity with H.Q., Aden Field Force in 1917 and G.H.Q., the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force, 1917-19, services that resulted in him being awarded the C.M.G., D.S.O. and at least three “mentions” (London Gazettes 1 January 1916, 4 January 1917 and 11 December 1917 refer), in addition to being given the Brevet of Lieutenant-Colonel. His D.S.O. was gazetted to him as a Major, Queen Victoria’s Own Corps of Guides (Frontier Force) (Lumsden’s), Indian Army.

Next engaged in the Third Afghan War, when he was employed as a G.S.O. at H.Q., North West Frontier Force (Despatches; Medal & clasp), Hay added the C.B.E. to his accolades for subsequent services in the Mesopotamian Insurrection of 1920, so, too, his General Service Medal for Iraq. Having been advanced to substantive Colonel in the same year, he became a Major-General in 1928 and his final stint of active service was in operations on the Euphrates in 1935 (King Feisal’s War Medal & clasp). A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and of the Royal Institute of International Affairs and Royal Central Asian Society, the General died in September 1940.