Orders, Decorations and Medals

An interesting post Great War O.B.E. group of four awarded to Air Commodore C. T. O’Neill, Royal Air Force Medical Branch

The Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) 1st type; General Service 1918-62, 2 clasps, Iraq, N.W. Persia (F/L., R.A.F.); Defence and War Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaf, mounted as worn, very fine and rare (4) £500-600

Only 47 ‘N.W. Persia’ clasps issued to the Royal Air Force, even fewer in combination with ‘Iraq’ and possibly unique to a medical officer.

O.B.E. London Gazette 1 June 1923. The following details were published by the Air Ministry, dated 23 May 1923: ‘This officer has shown great ability and zeal as a medical officer, and he has accomplished splendid work for the Greek refugees at the concentration camp at San Stefano. Owing to the prevalence of typhus and other diseases in the camp, this service was rendered at very great risk to his own life. His work among the refugees not only resulted in many lives being saved but also enhanced greatly the prestige of the British service.’

Christopher Thomas O’Neill, M.B., B.Ch., was born on 21 December 1892, and first commissioned in the Royal Air Force on 2 June 1919. He became Air Commodore on 1 July 1947 and retired on 18 January 1952. The Second World War M.I.D. has not been confirmed.