Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A scarce Great War civil surgeon’s O.B.E. group of four awarded to Dr. C. M. Hewer, who went out to France in October 1914 in the British Red Cross’s Baltic & Cornhill Exchange Unit

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Civil) Officer’s 1st type breast badge, silver-gilt, hallmarks for London 1919; 1914 Star (C. M. Hewer, B.R.C.S. & O. St. J.); British War and Victory Medals (C. M. Hewer, B.R.C. & O. St. J.), generally good very fine (4) £400-450

O.B.E. London Gazette 30 March 1920: ‘For services in connection with the War.’

Cecil MacKenzie Hewer qualified in medicine at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in August 1894 and was elected F.R.C.S. two years later. Having then served as an Assistant House Surgeon at the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital, he moved to Tarporley in Cheshire where, in October 1914, he volunteered his services to the British Red Cross, and was duly embarked for France as a Surgeon in the Society’s Baltic & Cornhill Exchange Unit. He was subsequently employed at the Sophie Berthelot Hospital, Calais, until April 1915, and thereafter back in the U.K. as a Medical Officer for Portal, Calveley Hall and Willington Red Cross Hospitals in Cheshire, in addition to undertaking further operations for serious cases at Pickworth and Bunbury. He also carried out X-ray work at all five hospitals, finally ending his appointment in February 1919. He was awarded the O.B.E.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation and his Great War Red Cross armband, the former including his Foreign Office passport for travelling in Europe, dated 16 October 1914, and British Red Cross identity card, and Army Certificate of Identity for Civilians Wearing the Red Cross Brassard, dated 10 March 1915, these last two with portrait photographs.