Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A civil O.B.E. and rare Gallipoli operations M.C. group of five awarded to Colonel K. Ffrench, South Wales Borderers, who was wounded in the battle of Gully Ravine in June 1915

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Civil) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge, silver-gilt, in its Royal Mint case of issue; Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed as issued; 1914-15 Star (Capt. K. Ffrench, S. Wales Bord.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Major K. Ffrench), these last four mounted as worn, together with a set of related dress miniatures (excluding the O.B.E.), very fine and better (9) £1600-1800

O.B.E. London Gazette 3 January 1945.

M.C. London Gazette 2 May 1916:

‘For distinguished services in the Field, with effect from 1 January 1916.’

(William) Kyrle (Percy) Ffrench was born at Netley Abbey, Hampshire, in March 1879, and was educated at Marlborough and Pembroke College, Cambridge.

A teacher by profession, he was an Assistant Master at Uppingham 1901-6, a Professor of Arts at the Muir Central College in Allahabad, India, 1906-8, and a Member of the Educational Department in Agra and Oudh; so, too, onetime an Assistant Master at the City of London School.

Mobilised from the Special Reserve on the outbreak of hostilities, he arrived in Gallipoli as a reinforcement for the 2nd Battalion, South Wales Borderers, on 26 May 1915, and was wounded in the battle of Gully Ravine on 28 June, when his unit’s war diary noted that the men ‘advanced through a perfect hail of shrapnel ... the whole place was littered with dead and the stench was almost unbearable’. British casualties were assessed conservatively at the 2,000 mark, owing in large to a shortage of supporting howitzer fire; also see The History of the South Wales Borderers, by C. T. Atkinson, for further details.

Evacuated from the Peninsula in September, Ffrench was mentioned in despatches by Sir Ian Hamilton (London Gazette 22 September 1915 refers), and was awarded the M.C.

On recovering from his wounds, he returned to duty with an appointment at the War Office in March 1916, and, after further service as a Staff Captain, Home Forces, in which period he gained another “mention” (London Gazette 5 May 1916 refers), he was employed as a G.S.O. 3 in Northern Command from November 1916 until August 1917.

Going out to France at the end of the same year, he was subsequently employed as a Deputy and Assistant Adjutant-General until the end of hostilities, latterly in the temporary rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, and won a third mention in despatches (London Gazette 5 July 1919 refers).

Between the Wars, Ffrench was given the Brevet of Lieutenant-Colonel in June 1924 and served as Deputy Assistant Adjutant and Quarter-Master General in the 55th (West Lancashire) Division from April 1926 until being placed on the Reserve of Officers as a Colonel.

Having then settled at Greystone House in Winforton, Herefordshire, for which county he was a Deputy Lieutenant, he added the O.B.E. to his accolades for services as ‘Secretary of the Territorial Army Association for the counties of Brecknock, Hereford and Radnor’ (London Gazette 3 January 1945 refers).