Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare Boxer Rebellion Military Order of the Dragon group of three awarded to Major F. V. Jeffreys, 4th Balloon Section, Royal Engineers

Jubilee 1897, silver, unnamed as issued; China 1900, 1 clasp, Relief of Pekin (Major F. V. Jeffreys, R.E.); U.S.A., Military Order of the Dragon (Major Frederick V. Jeffreys Royal Engineers No. 505.) complete with original silk embroidered ribbon and Pagoda top suspension brooch, good very fine (3) £2500-3000

Sold with portrait photograph by Elliott of Aldershot, and a good selection of original documents including Member’s Certificate of the Military Order of the Dragon; Commission as Lieutenant R.E., dated 6 April 1879; various letters home to his family from Ceylon, Australia and the Far East, 1885-99; and Passport for Palestine and Syria, September 1907.

Frederick Vaughan Jeffreys was born in 1860 and was appointed a Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 6 April 1879; Captain, 1 April 1889; Major 23 October 1897; Lieutenant-Colonel, 24 January 1905. He went to China in 1900 on the strength of the 4th Balloon Section R.E. and is shown as 2nd in command on the medal roll of that unit, dated Aldershot 16 May 1902, and the only recipient of the clasp for the Relief of Pekin. However, once landed in China he was seconded as Field Engineer with the Pekin relief force. He was mentioned in the despatches of Lieutenant-General Gaselee, London Gazette 14 May 1901, having been brought to notice ’for work done in connection with the Housing of the Troops in Tientsin during the winter of 1900-1901.’