Orders, Decorations and Medals

An interesting K.C.M.G., M.V.O., O.B.E. group of eleven awarded to Brigadier Sir J. F. Gault, Scots Guards, British Military Assistant to General Eisenhower 1942-45, and later to the Supreme Commander Allied Powers in Europe 1951-53

The Order of St. Michael and St. George, K.C.M.G., neck badge and breast star, silver, gilt and enamels, the set in its Garrard & Co. Ltd. case of issue with full neck cravat; The Royal Victorian Order, M.V.O., 4th class breast badge, silver-gilt and enamels, the reverse officially numbered ‘1419’; The Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) 2nd type; 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Italy Star; France & Germany Star; Defence & War Medals; Coronation 1953; U.S.A., Legion of Merit, Officer, the reverse officially named (James F. Gault) the last ten mounted ‘Court’ style as worn, nearly extremely fine (11) £800-1000

K.C.M.G. London Gazette 5 June 1952: ‘Brigadier, M.V.O., O.B.E., Personal Assistant to the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe.’

M.V.O. London Gazette 2 July 1943: ‘Lieutenant-Colonel, M.B.E., Scots Guards, on the occasion of His Majesty’s recent visit to North Africa and Malta.’

O.B.E. London Gazette 23 January 1947: ‘Colonel, M.V.O., M.B.E., Scots Guards, in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in the field.’

M.B.E. London Gazette 30 December 1941: ‘Captain (Acting Major), Scots Guards, in recognition of distinguished services in the Middle East, (including Egypt, East Africa, The Western Desert, The Sudan, Greece, Crete, Syria, and Tobruk) during the period February 1941 to July 1941.’

Legion of Merit London Gazette 1945: ‘Colonel, M.V.O., M.B.E., Scots Guards, in recognition of distinguished services in the cause of the Allies.’

James “Jim” Frederick Gault was born on 26 June 1902, and educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. He joined the Scots Guards in 1939 and served in the Middle East and North Africa, where in December 1942 he joined the Personal Staff of General Dwight D. Eisenhower as his British Military Assistant. In July 1943 he accompanied the Commander of the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations to Malta for the invasions of Sicily and Italy. From Italy he returned to the U.K. and in January 1944 accompanied “Ike” to S.H.A.E.F. to begin work on the planning of D-Day.

At “Ike’s” Advanced Command Post, near Portsmouth, on D-Day minus 1, Eisenhower asked Gault to go to his personal office tent and call Naval H.Q. on the scrambler for ‘the latest dope’. The atmosphere was tense in the extreme, and was made far worse for “Ike” that Gault was taking down a very lengthy report. His Naval Aide, Captain Harry Butcher, U.S.N.R., whose diaries contain numerous references to Gault, recalled: ‘So Ike and all of us in the office caravan could hear the conversation of Jim and the Duty Officer... This went on for minutes, and Ike said, “God, this must be bad, its so long” ... Finally, I thought I’d relieve the pressure, at least on myself, so I walked over to where Jim was taking down in red pencil on a pad, and repeating in deadly seriousness, the latest dope. I tried to signal to him to hurry, but he couldn’t, the man on the other end was doing his duty for the Supreme Commander and there couldn’t be any mistakes. Finally Jim rang off and, with me tagging along, silently and importantly burst into the office caravan. Nothing less than a Battleship and a dozen Destroyers had been lost, the signs indicated, but as Jim solemnly read his notes, I perceived Ike’s features relax, for it was only a weather report, and it wasn’t bad, said possibly decent weather for several days, and not too bad for bombing’.

On Sunday, 27 August 1944, 48 hours after the first entry into Paris by General Le Clerc’s 2nd French Division, Eisenhower found that De Gaulle had also already entered the captured city and established a headquarters in one of the Government buildings. Eisenhower immediately called Montgomery suggesting that he should accompany him into the city in order to present ‘an Allied front’, but Montgomery was unable to oblige owing to the rapidly changing situation on his battle front. Consequently it was Gault, as the representative of the British, who accompanied Eisenhower and General Bradley to De Gaulle’s H.Q. and who, near the Arc de Triomphe and Place de L’Étiole, was mobbed by an exuberant crowd of liberated citizens. From D-Day onwards Gault was seldom far from Eisenhower and consequently a frequent visitor to the H.Q.’s of the Senior Allied Commanders blazing a trail to Berlin, where at the end of the war he presented a S.H.A.E.F. shield, in Eisenhower’s name, to Marshal Zhukov.

Eisenhower was permitted by the War Office to retain Gault’s services until the end of 1945. Reflecting on the wartime service rendered by his British assistant, Eisenhower concluded, ‘He was a devoted, loyal, and efficient Officer who for more than two years daily took on his own shoulders a multitude of detailed, sometimes exasperating, problems which otherwise would have fallen to me’. Gault was re-employed in 1950 and promoted Brigadier to become Military Assistant to the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, in 1951. He took leave of this important post in 1953, shortly after the advent of Ridgway, who was followed by his own staff from Japan. Brigadier Sir James Gault died on 14 January 1977. The group is accompanied by Captain Harry Butcher’s book, My Three Years with Eisenhower. See also Lot 695 for his miniature medals.