Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War M.C. group of four awarded to Major E. A. McA. Franklin, Indian Army, late Australian Imperial Force and Dorsetshire Regiment

Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed as issued; 1914-15 Star (260 Sgt. E. A. McA. Franklin, 4 L.H.R. A.I.F.); British War Medal (Capt. E. A. McA. Franklin, 42 Deoli Regt.); Victory Medal 1914-19 (Capt. E. A. McA. Franklin), mounted as worn, together with a set of related miniature dress medals and Dorsetshire Regiment cap badge, the third with official corrections to surname and unit, a little polished, nearly very fine or better (4) £1200-1500

M.C. London Gazette 25 November 1916:

‘For conspicuous gallantry in action. He assumed command of, and led, his company with great courage and initiative. Later, although severely wounded, he reported valuable information to Battalion H.Q.’

Eric Angus McAlister Franklin, who was born in July 1894, enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in August 1914, aged 20 years, when he was appointed a Sergeant in ‘B’ Squadron of the 4th Light Horse Regiment. Embarked for Egypt in October of the same year, he was appointed to a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Dorsetshire Regiment in April 1915, in which capacity he joined the 5th Battalion as a reinforcement in Gallipoli that September.

Among those to be evacuated from the peninsula in the new year, he served in the Egyptian Expeditionary Force until the summer of 1916, when he was embarked for France, and it was in the latter theatre of war, on the Somme, that he won his M.C. for the above cited deeds that September - most probably for the 5th Battalion’s action at Mouquet Farm.

Having then transferred to the Indian Army in May 1917, he served in the 42nd Deoli Regiment, part of 5th (Mhow) Division, and in the 2/97th Deccan Infantry, latterly on attachment to the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in the period May-November 1918.

Franklin remained actively employed in the Indian Army after the War, and was placed on the Retired List in the late 1930s, having gained advancement to Major in January 1934; sold with research