Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A post-war O.B.E. group of seven awarded to Temporary Major J. H. Krikler, Southern Rhodesia Military Forces, attached Gold Coast Regiment

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Civil) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge, in its Royal Mint case of issue; 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Efficiency Decoration, G.VI.R., Southern Rhodesia, the reverse officially engraved, ‘T./Maj. James H. Krikler’, with Southern Rhodesia campaign medal forwarding slip, extremely fine (7) £400-500

O.B.E. London Gazette 1 January 1955.

James Harold Krikler was born in May 1891 at Telshi, Lithuania and came to Southern Rhodesia in 1909 where he established his own business at Shabani. A member of the Southern Rhodesia Volunteers from 1910, he was commissioned in 1934 and witnessed active service in the 1939-45 War, initially on attachment to the 3rd Battalion, Gold Coast Regiment, but afterwards with the Southern Rhodesia Supply Corps 1940-45. He was advanced to the temporary rank of Major in 1942 and received the Efficiency Decoration in 1944.

Krikler was awarded the O.B.E. in respect of his services as Chairman of Shabani’s Town Management Board in the early 1950s and was otherwise occupied as a Commissioner of Oaths in Gwelo District and as Chairman and Managing Director of Ralstein Bros. & Krikler Ltd.; sold with brief copied research, including a history of Shabani’s Jewish community.