Orders, Decorations and Medals

A Great War M.C. group often to Major V.C. Branson M.B.E., M.C., Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Force, late Royal Sussex Regiment

ORDER OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE, M.B.E. (Military) 2nd type; MILITARY CROSS, G.V.R.; 1914-15 STAR (106530 Cpl., R.E.); BRITISH WAR AND VICTORY MEDALS (Lieut.); 1939-45 STAR; PACIFIC STAR; DEFENCE AND WAR MEDALS; EFFICIENCY DECORATION, Hong Kong, G.VI.R., named on the reverse (Major, M.B.E., M.C.) the top bar drilled to facilitate mounting, the group mounted as worn and sold with two original news cuttings, very fine (10)

M.C., T. Lieut. V.C. Branson, 13th Bn. Royal Sussex Regiment: 'For conspicuous gallantry near Becordel Becourt on Aug. 22, 1918, on patrol. With a small party of men he entered the village of Becordel Becourt, then some 1,500 yards in front of our line, and discovered it to be free of the enemy. The same night, when the post of another company had been driven back, he immediately proceeded with two men, reestablished the post, and at once pushed forward in pursuit of the enemy, obtaining a valuable identification some eighty yards in front of the post.

M.B.E., London Gazette, 1 January, 1941: Captain V.C. Branson, M.C., Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Force.

E.D., Hong Kong Government Gazette, 15 August, 1947.

Victor Cecil Branson arrived in Hong Kong in January 1925 and worked as a Government Chemist with qualifications A.R.C.S., D.I.C., B.Sc, F.I.C. In 1937 he raised No.4 (Chinese) Company, Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps, in which he served during the Second World War.