Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War M.C. group of eight awarded to Captain W. L. Naper, Royal Horse Guards, A.D.C. to General Allenby
Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed; 1914 Star, with clasp (Capt., R.H. Gds.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oakleaf (Capt.); Coronation 1902, silver; Coronation 1911, silver, these unnamed; Egypt, Order of the Nile, 4th Class breast badge by Lattes, silver, silver-gilt and enamel, rosette on ribbon; Greece, Royal Order of George I, Knight’s Gold Cross breast badge, silver-gilt and enamel, mounted as worn, good very fine (8) £1800-2200

M.C. London Gazette 3 June 1918. ‘Capt., R. of O., R.H. Gds.’
M.I.D. London Gazette 5 June 1919 (Allenby).
Order of the Nile, 4th Class London Gazette 16 January 1920. ‘Captain, M.C., Royal Horse Guards (Reserve of Officers)’
Order of George I, Officer London Gazette 24 October 1919.

William Lenox Naper was born on 4 January 1879, the only son of James Lenox Naper of Loughcrew, Old Castle, Co. Meath, Ireland, D.L., J.P. He was educated at Eton, 1892-97 and served as Deputy Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace for the county of Meath in 1908 and was appointed High Sheriff in 1911. He was appointed a 2nd Lieutenant in the 4th (Militia) Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment on 9 February 1898 and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Horse Guards in April 1899. He was promoted to Lieutenant in August 1899, Captain in June 1906 and was transferred to the Reserve of Officers in May 1908. As a Captain in the Royal Horse Guards he entered the France/Flanders theatre of war on 7 October 1914. On 28 April 1915 Naper was appointed a Remount Officer. He served throughout the war attached to the Remount Service and Staff, in France, Egypt and Palestine. Naper was appointed Aide-de-Camp to the C-in-C. Egyptian Expeditionary Force (Allenby), 25 July 1917-8 May 1919. For his wartime services he was mentioned in despatches for services with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force ‘during the period from 18 September 1918 to 31 January 1919’, and awarded the Military Cross ‘for distinguished service in connection with military operations in Egypt.’ In addition he was awarded Orders from Egypt and Greece. Postwar he was Master of Fox Hounds at Ballmacad, 1919-29. Captain Naper died at Old Castle, Co. Meath on 25 October 1942.

With postcard photograph of Allenby and Naper riding together in a staff car; two other photographs; copied gazette extracts, m.i.c. and other research.