Orders, Decorations and Medals

A fine C.M.G., D.S.O., O.B.E., group of ten awarded to Colonel J. Josselyn, Suffolk Regiment and West Yorkshire Regiment, for services in the Great War and in North Russia

ORDER OF ST. MICHAEL AND ST. GEORGE, C.M.G., neck badge in silver-gilt, gold and enamels; DISTINGUISHED SERVICE ORDER, G.V.R.; ORDER OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE, O.B.E. (Military) lsttype; BRITISH WARANDVICTORYMEDALS, M.I.D. (Lt. Col.); TERRITORIAL FORCE WAR MEDAL (Major, Suff. R.); TERRITORIAL DECORATION, G.V.R., the reverse inscribed (Lt. Col., West York Regt. 12th Decr. 1916); France, CROIX DE GUERRE 1914-18; Russia, ORDER OF ST. ANNE, 2nd class neck badge with swords in gold and enamels by Edouard of St. Petersburg Russia, ORDER OF ST. VLADIMIR, 3rd class neck badge in silver-gilt and enamels, good very fine (10)

C.M.G., London Gazette, 1 January 1919. 'For services rendered in connection with Military Operations in North Russia.'

D.S.O., London Gazette, 1 January, 1918.

O.B.E., London Gazette, 7 June ,1918. 'For an act of gallantry not in the presence of the enemy.’

Colonel John Josselyn, C.M.G., D.S.O., O.B.E., was born in October 1872 and practiced as a Solicitor in Madras, where he was onetime a member of the Madras Guards and Artillery Volunteers, before returning to the U.K. and setting up a practice in Ipswich, where he became a member of the Suffolk Yeomanry. Mobilised in August 1914, he served on Coast Defence with the 6th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment until January 1915, when appointed Brigade Major to 185th Infantry Brigade. Then in May 1916, having been promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel, he took command of the 2/5th West Yorks. After training in England, the unit sailed for France in January 1917, subsequently seeing service in the trenches at Miraumont, Bullecourt and in a number of attacks on the Hindenburg Line, Josselyn being wounded near Croiselles and hospitalised in August. The regimental records for this period confirm his eventual return to the U.K. suffering from shell-shock. He was awarded the D.S.O., French Croix de Guerre and mentioned in despatches. In May 1918 Josselyn joined the North Russian Expeditionary Force, seeing service on the Murmansk Railway, in addition to commanding a Battalion on the Kern Front and the original River Dvina and Vaga River Expeditions, between August and October 1918. He returned home in 1919 and was created a C.M.G., mentioned in despatches and awarded the 3rd class St. Vladimir and 2nd class St. Anne. Between 1920 and 1922, Josselyn was Deputy Director of the Russian Claims Department Board but retained his rank as Colonel with the Territorial Force, his T.D. having been gazetted back in 1916. During the 1939-45 War he held a Home Guard appointment but died on 11 October 1943.