Auction Catalogue

9 December 1999

Starting at 12:00 PM

.

Orders, Decorations and Medals

The Regus Conference Centre  12 St James Square  London  SW1Y 4RB

Lot

№ 826

.

9 December 1999

Hammer Price:
£580

A K.B.E. group awarded to Sir Henry Arthur Hobson, ‘our man in Havana’ during the Second World War and subsequently British Consul-General in New York, late 2nd Lieutenant, Suffolk Regiment

The Order of the British Empire,
K.B.E. (Civil) 2nd type, neck badge and breast star, the set contained in its Garrard & Co. Ltd. case of issue; British War and Victory Medals (2.Lieut.); Coronation 1937; Coronation 1953, together with five related miniatures, extremely fine (11) £350-450

K.B.E., 5 June 1952; C.B.E., 8 June 1944; M.B.E., 3 June 1929.

Henry Arthur Hobson was born on 28 August 1893, and educated at Whitgift Middle. He was appointed 2nd Lieutenant, 6th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, on 16 November 1917, and served in France until the end of the war. He joined the Consular Service and was appointed Vice-Consul at Tangier in 1919. He served subsequently at Barcelona, Vigo, Caracas (Chargé d’Affaires, 1925 and 1926); Ghent, Lille, La Paz (Chargé d’Affaires, 1931), Lima (Chargé d’Affaires, 1932), Baltimore, and Riga. He was Consul-General at Havana, 1940-45, Barcelona, 1945-50, and at New York, 1951-53. Sir Henry Hobson retired in 1954, and died in London on 4 February 1968.

The group is sold with a good quantity of original documentation, including Warrants for the K.B.E., C.B.E., and M.B.E.; Commission as 2nd Lieutenant; thirteen British Government Indentures appointing him to his many and varied posts, mostly signed by the reigning Monarch and the incumbent Foreign Secretary, Austen Chamberlain, Anthony Eden, etc.; and a quantity of similar indentures from various foreign governments.