Orders, Decorations and Medals

The important C.V.O., D-Day and Normandy D.S.O., O.B.E. group of twelve awarded to Colonel R. A. G. Bingley, 11th Hussars, who raised and commanded the Inns of Court Armoured Car Regiment, leading it ashore under fire on Juno Beach on 6 June 1944

The Royal Victorian Order, C.V.O., Commander’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel, the reverse officially numbered ‘C826’, in its Collingwood fitted case of issue; Distinguished Service Order, G.VI.R., 1st issue, silver-gilt and enamel, the reverse of the suspension bar officially dated ‘1945’; The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge; Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Officer’s breast badge, silvered-metal and enamel; 1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Coronation 1953; Luxembourg, Order of Civil and Military Merit of Adolphe of Nassau, Commander’s neck badge, with swords, silver-gilt and enamel, in its case of issue; The Netherlands, Orange House Order, Commander’s neck badge, by Begeer, Voorschoten, silver-gilt and enamel, in its fitted case of issue; The Netherlands, Queen Juliana’s Coronation Medal 1948, enamel work slightly chipped in places, otherwise good very fine and better (12) £8000-10000

C.V.O. London Gazette 1 January 1954.


D.S.O. London Gazette 1 February 1945. The original recommendation states:

‘Lieutenant-Colonel Bingley commands the Inns of Court Regiment. A detachment of this unit, under his personal command, landed in Normandy on D-Day and achieved a very deep penetration of the enemy defences, reaching Tilly-sur-Seulle. During this action he came under very heavy fire and his detachment suffered very heavy losses.

Ever since this day his unit has been engaged in the battle. Every detachment has shown the same thrust and determination as was displayed by Lieutenant-Colonel Bingley to penetrate the enemy defences, report on his doings and disorganise and demoralise his rear areas.

I consider this spirit due to the splendid example set by Lieutenant-Colonel Bingley both on D-Day and thereafter and strongly recommend that (if he has not already been recommended) he be awarded the D.S.O.’


O.B.E. London Gazette 13 June 1946.

Robert Albert Glanville Bingley was born in November 1902, the son of Hon. Major R. N. G. Bingley, O.B.E., of Notley Abbey, Thame, Oxfordshire and Braiseworth, Suffolk, and was educated at Charterhouse and R.M.C. Sandhurst. Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 11th Hussars in February 1923, he was appointed Adjutant of the Regiment in the rank of Captain in August 1933, and Adjutant of the Inns of Court Regiment in April 1936.

Similarly employed on the outbreak of hostilities in September 1939, he was advanced to Major in February 1940 and assumed command of the Inns of Court Regiment as an Acting Lieutenant-Colonel at the end of the same year, when it transferred to the Royal Armoured Corps (R.A.C.). Here, then, his part in raising and commanding the newly established Inns of Court Armoured Car Regiment.

Moreover, he led ‘C’ Squadron of the Regiment ashore on Juno Beach, near Graye-sur-Mere, on D-Day, charged with making a swift advance inland in the unit’s “Dingo” cars to secure vital bridges and to halt or slow the 21st Panzer Division reinforcing the beachhead. Arriving 30 minutes behind the main assaulting force, the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, one of the Regiment’s landing craft hit a mine, causing the first of many casualties that day - the Canadians alone suffered 340 men killed and another 574 wounded. Notwithstanding such losses, Bingley and ‘C’ Squadron had advanced as far inland as Tilly-sur-Seulle by nightfall, a remarkable achievement for a regiment embarked on its first bout of active service. He was awarded the D.S.O., one of just two such distinctions won by the Regiment in the War.

In the immediate aftermath of D-Day, ‘C’ Squadron acted as a “Phantom” wireless unit, until the main body of the Regiment landed in Normandy at the end of the month. Thereafter, as part of 11th Armoured Division, the Regiment became the reconnaissance asset of I Corps, was heavily engaged in the fierce encounters of the bocage and, prior to Bingley relinquishing his command in January 1945, the Arnhem relief operations, fine work that no doubt contributed to his next appointment as Assistant Military Secretary to Field Marshal Montgomery in 21 Army Group, until March 1946, and in which role he was awarded the O.B.E. and advanced to the substantive rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

He served subsequently as Head of the British Military Mission in Luxembourg in 1946-47 and as Military Attache at the British Embassy in The Hague 1947-51, in which appointments he was awarded his Orders of Adolphe of Nassau and Orange House Order. Returning to the U.K. in the latter year to take up appointment as Assistant Military Secretary in Eastern Command, he served in that capacity to General Sir Gerald Templer (1951-52), General Sir George Erskine (1952-53) and Lieutenant-General G. K. Bourne (1953-54), and was awarded the C.V.O. in January 1954 for services in the Royal Mews Department on State Occasions.

Placed on the Retired List in the honorary rank of Colonel in February 1955, Bingley became a Director of the St. John Ambulance Association, gaining appointment as O. St. J. (London Gazette 6 January 1956 refers), and C. St. J. (London Gazette 13 January 1959 refers), in addition to farming in Devon. The Colonel died in 1974.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including the recipient’s original warrants for the C.V.O., dated 1 January 1954, D.S.O., dated 1 February 1945, with related forwarding letter, and O.B.E., dated 13 June 1936, together with the warrants, and related correspondence, for his Orders of Adolphe of Nassau and Orange House Order, including Buckingham Palace restricted permission to wear document for the latter, and several original forwarding envelopes; one or two portrait photographs and the recipient’s father’s O.B.E. (Civil), Member’s 1st type breast badge, silver-gilt, hallmarks for London 1919, in its Garrard & Co. case of issue, as awarded to him for services as an Hon. Major and Assistant Commissioner in the British Red Cross in Salonika.