Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An unusual Boer War and Great War group of seven awarded to Colonel Sir Simeon Stuart, Bt., onetime City Marshal of London, late Militia, 5th Dragoon Guards and Imperial Yeomanry, who raised and commanded the 2/2 County of London Yeomanry (Westminster Dragoons) 1914-16

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal (Major Sir, Bt., Impl. Yeo.); British War and Victory Medals, with loose M.I.D. oak leaf (Col. Sir., Bt.); Territorial Force War Medal 1914-19 (Lt. Col. Sir, Bt. R.E. Kent Yeo.); Jubilee 1897, silver, privately engraved, ‘Sir Simeon H.L. Stuart, Bart.’; Jubilee 1897, bronze, City of London Police issue (Sir Simeon H.L. Stuart, Bart., City Marshal of London); Coronation 1911, privately engraved, ‘Lt. Col. Sir Simeon H.L. Stuart, Bt., 2nd County of London (Westminster Drgns.) Yeoy.’, together with a later unmarked Baronet’s Badge, United Kingdom issue, silver-gilt and enamel, the reverse inscribed, ‘Stuart of Hartley Mauduit, 1660’, medals mounted court-style for display, the clasp backstraps on the first sometime removed for mounting purposes, the first and fifth with contact marks, the fifth with quite severe edge bruising, otherwise very fine or better (7) £1200-1500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals relating to the Boer War formed by two brothers.

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Simeon Henry Lechmere Stuart was born in May 1864, the only son of Sir Simeon Henry Stuart, 6th Bt., of Hartley Mauduit, Hampshire. Educated at Clifton and Magdalen College, Oxford, he was commissioned into the 3rd (West York Militia) Battalion, The Duke of Wellington’s Regiment in June 1885, but obtained a regular commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 5th Dragoon Guards in November 1887. Having been advanced to Lieutenant in November 1889, however, he resigned his commission in January 1891 and succeeded to his father’s title in the following year.

Stuart, who subsequently served as City Marshal of London 1893-99, was commissioned into the Imperial Yeomanry on the outbreak of hostilities in South Africa, and served in the rank of Major, initially as C.O. of the I.Y. Advanced Base Depot at Bloemfontein and latterly as a Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General. He was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 17 June 1902 refers). He next served in the Suffolk Hussars (I.Y.) but in April 1902 raised a squadron of the 2nd County of London Yeomanry (Westminster Dragoons), in which regiment he was advanced to Lieutenant-Colonel in December 1909 and held command until early 1914.

On the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he raised and commanded the 2/2 County of London Yeomanry, but in July 1916 the regiment was disbanded, its men being allocated to assorted units in France. For his own part, Sir Simeon went out to the Front as C.O. of the 2nd Entrenching Battalion, and served in the Ypres salient 1916-17, after which he took command of XIX Corps reinforcements 1917-18, before finally being appointed an A.D.C. on the Staff of 61st Division in September 1918. He was once more mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 11 December 1917 refers).

Sir Simeon, who was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, died at his London residence in November 1939, aged 75 years. With a quantity of copied research.