Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare Great War D.C.M. group of five awarded to Lieutenant I. E. Balaban, Liverpool Regiment, late Royal Engineers, who was decorated for his gallantry as a member of 187th “Gas Cylinder” Company, R.E. - the date of award of his D.C.M. suggests a probable link to the V.C.-winning exploits of Corporal J. L. Dawson, also a member of 187th Company, at Hohenzollern Redoubt in October 1915

Distinguished Conduct Medal, G.V.R. (106100 Cpl. I. E. Balaban, 187/Co., R.E.); 1914-15 Star (106100 Cpl. I. E. Balaban, R.E.); British War and Victory Medals (2 Lieut. I. E. Balaban); Defence Medal 1939-45, good very fine (5) £1200-1500

D.C.M. London Gazette 14 January 1916:

‘For conspicuous gallantry. During an attack, when his partner was incapacitated and the parapet had been blown in, he stuck to his position, although fully exposed, and conducted himself in a very gallant manner.’

Isaac Elkune Balaban enlisted in the Royal Engineers on the outbreak of hostilities, direct from his studies at Manchester University, where he was a member of the O.T.C.

Embarked for France in mid-July 1915, he served as a Corporal in 187th Company, R.E., one of four units then employed in gas cylinder operations, and was awarded the D.C.M. for the above cited deeds later in the same year. A few weeks before the announcement of his award, The London Gazette had also announced that a fellow N.C.O. in 187th Company, R.E., namely Corporal J. L. Lawson, was to receive the V.C.:

‘For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty on 13 October 1915, at Hohenzollern Redoubt. During a gas attack, when the trenches were full of men, he walked backwards and forwards along the parados, fully exposed to a very heavy fire, in order to be better able to give directions to his own sappers, and to clear the infantry out of sections of the trench that were full of gas. Finding three leaking gas cylinders, he rolled them some sixteen yards away from the trench, again under very heavy fire, and then fired rifle bullets into them to let the gas escape. There is no doubt that the cool gallantry of Corporal Dawson on this occasion saved many men from being gassed.’

Balaban presumably remained similarly employed out in France until returning home to attend an Officer Cadet Unit, for he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 8th Battalion, Liverpool Regiment, in November 1917.

Returning to his studies at Manchester University after being placed on the Territorial Force Reserve in December 1920, he became MSc (Tech) in 1921 and obtained a PhD in the early 1930s. He also appears to have been recalled on the renewal of hostilities, the Army List of 1944 listing him as a Lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers (Reserve of Officers).

Balaban’s portrait photograph appears in the British Jewry Book of Honour, edited by Rev. Michael Adler, D.S.O. (Caxton Publishing Co. Ltd, London, 1922); sold with a quantity of copied research.