The Upfill-Brown Collection

A fine Military Medal, Colonial Police Medal group of seven to Chief Detective Inspector D. H. Greengrass, B.S.A. Police, late Royal West Kent Regiment

MILITARY MEDAL, G.V.R. (L. Cpl., 7/R.W. Kent R.); 1914-15 STAR (Pte., R.W. Kent R.);BRITISH WAR and VICTORY MEDALS (Pte., R.W. Kent R.); 1939-45 WAR MEDAL (M.M., Chf. Det. Insp, B. S. A. Police), privately engraved; COLONIAL POLICE MEDAL FOR MERITORIOUS SERVICE, G.VI. R. (M.M., Insp., B. S. A. Police); ARMY LONG SERVICE AND GOOD CONDUCT, G.V.R., suspender bar 'Southern Rhodesia' (2nd Cl. Det. Sgt., M.M.), mounted court style for display, very fine and extremely rare (7)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The AA Upfill-Brown Collection.

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Chief Detective Inspector Daniel Greengrass was born at Chislehurst, Kent, and entered 'The Buffs' aged seventeen on the outbreak of hostilities in 1914. Taken P. O. W. at St. Quentin in the March offensive of 1918, Greengrass was led off to a factory in Westfalia, Germany, where he was forcibly made to work on munitions. Together with a Frenchman and a Russian, he managed to escape whilst on night shift. Their liberty, however, was short lived, and after many adventures they were recaptured, punished, and forced to continue their unwilling munition work, closely guarded, until the armistice. In August 1919, Greengrass departed for Salisbury, joining the Mounted Branch of the British South Africa Police. He next transferred to the C.I.D. as a plain clothes Constable and was gazetted an Immigration Officer for the Colony in 1923. Thereafter, he became involved in the investigation of many famous crimes, gradually rising to the rank of Chief Detective Inspector. His L.S.& G.C. Medal was awarded in 1934 and the M.S.M. gazetted in 1945. One of his last official duties prior to returning to the U.K. for retirement, was the organisation of the Royal Train during the visit of King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and their daughters, in 1947, for which services he received a commemorative medallion. Greengrass died in 1964.