Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The mounted groups of miniature medals named to Temporary Brigadier-General W. G. A. Ramsay-Fairfax, Royal Naval Division and Tank Corps and Commander, Royal Navy

Five: The Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, silver-gilt and enamel; Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., gold and enamel, with top bar; 1914-15 Star; British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf, all unnamed, mounted as worn, contained in a A. & N.C.S. Ltd., London leather case, the lid bearing the initials, ‘W.G.A.R-F.’

Three: Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 2 clasps, Cape Colony, South Africa 1902 (Capt. W. G. A. Ramsay-Fairfax, Imp. Yeo.); Africa General Service 1902-56, 1 clasp, Somaliland 1902-04 (Lieut. W. G. Ramsay-Fairfax, Somaliland F.F.) mounted as worn; together with a Royal Humane Society Medal, bronze, successful (Lieut. W. G. A. Ramsay-Fairfax, R.N., April 27th 1904) with buckle on ribbon, contained in a Spink, London leather case, nearly extremely fine (8) £300-400

William George Astell Ramsay-Fairfax was born in 1876, the second son of Colonel Sir William Ramsay-Fairfax, 2nd Bt., of Maxton, Roxburghshire. He was educated at Cordwalles, Maldenhead; The Limes, Greenwich; and H.M.S. Britannia. Commissioned a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, he resigned in 1901 and joined the 30th Regiment Imperial Yeomanry in 1902 and served in South Africa with the rank of Captain. He took part in Sir William Northrup McMillan’s Expedition for the exploration of the Blue Nile, 1903 and served with the Abyssinian Army co-operating with the British Somaliland Field Force, 1902-04. On 27 April 1904, as a Lieutenant, R.N., aboard H.M.S. Mohawk, he effected a rescue: ‘S. Turner, who had been confined as a lunatic, slipped from his keeper and threw himself overboard from H.M.S. Mohawk in the Gulf of Aden. Ramsay-Fairfax jumped from the ship and kept him afloat till they were picked up. The locality abounds with sharks.’ For his services he was awarded the R.H.S. Bronze Medal (Case no. 33240). During the Great War he served at sea with the Royal Naval Division in Gallipoli and France and with the Tank Corps. For his services he was promoted to Temporary Brigadier-General, was four times mentioned in despatches and was awarded the D.S.O. in 1916 and C.M.G. in 1919. He died on 20 November 1946. With calling card of Sir William Ramsay-Fairfax, of Maxton and 16 Queens Gate and copied research.