Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A post-war civil O.B.E. awarded to Norman Boothroyd, Ministry of Housing and Local Government, late Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry and Artists Rifles

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, together with Great War period Artists Rifles cap badge, the first heavily toned, extremely fine (2) £80-120

O.B.E. London Gazette 1 January 1958.

Norman Boothroyd, onetime a member of the Artists Rifles, was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry in December 1916, and witnessed active service out in France with the 7th Battalion. Subsequently employed by the Ministry of Housing, he was awarded the O.B.E. for his services as a Senior Housing and Planning Officer, but sadly died less than a month after his award appeared in the London Gazette.

Sold with a small quantity of original documentation, including a hand drawn trench map showing the positions of ‘A’ Company, 7th Battalion, D.C.L.I., on 19 November 1917, and a copy of 61st Infantry Brigade Orders, dated 23 November 1918, with ‘Lt. Boothroyd’ in ink top left; together with several official letters appertaining to his appointment to O.B.E., including Buckingham Palace investiture letter, dated 23 January 1958.