Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria to coincide with the OMRS Convention

An outstanding Boer War D.S.O. group of eight awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel G. H. J. Skeffington-Smyth, 9th Lancers, later Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms

Distinguished Service Order, V.R., silver-gilt and enamels; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 6 clasps, Belmont, Modder River, Relief of Kimberley, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, Wittebergen (Capt. G. H. J. S. Smyth, D.S.O., 9/Lcrs.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaf (Lt. Col. G. H. J. Skeffington-Smyth); Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937; Legion of Honour, 4th class, silver, gilt and enamels; French Croix de Guerre 1914-1918, with bronze palme, mounted court style, some enamel chips and light contact marks but generally good very fine (8) £2500-3000

See Colour Plate III

D.S.O. London Gazette 27 September 1901: ‘In recognition of services during the operations in South Africa.’ The Insignia was presented to him by the King on 29 October 1901.

M.I.D. London Gazette 10 September 1901, 20 May 1918, 20 December 1918, and 5 July 1919.

Legion of Honour London Gazette 28 September 1918; Croix de Guerre London Gazette 7 October 1919.

Geoffrey Henry Julian Skeffington-Smyth was born on 11 December 1873, youngest son of E. Randal Skeffington-Smyth, Vice-Lieutenant for the Queen’s County, late Lieutenant and Adjutant of the 28th Regiment, in which he served and was wounded in the Crimean War. He was educated at the Rev. E. D. Stone’s Preparatory School at Stonehouse, Broadstairs, and at Eton College, and entered the 9th Lancers on 29 May 1895, becoming Lieutenant on 4 July 1896.

He served in the South African War and was severely wounded. He took part in the advance on Kimberley, including the actions at Belmont, Enslin, Modder River and Magersfontein, and the relief of Kimberley; operations in the Orange Free State, February to May 1900, including the action at Karee Siding; operations in the Transvaal in May and June 1900, including actions near Johannesburg, Pretoria and Diamond Hill; operations in the Transvaal, west of Pretoria, July to November 1900; operations in Orange River Colony, May to November 1900, including actions at Bethlehem and Wittebergen.

It is believed that Lieutenant Skeffington-Smyth was recommended for the D.S.O. for acts of bravery in the field at the engagement at Quaggasfontein, Western Transvaal, when his Troop of the 9th Lancers, together with a party of Kaffrarian Rifles, were heavily engaged, suffered severe losses, and were finally, at the end of the day, surrounded by the enemy, having run out of ammunition. No unwounded man was captured, however. Lieutenant Skeffington-Smyth received four wounds during the day, his leg being broken by the second one. He went back for and returned with ammunition under heavy fire (they were lying in the open within 600 yards of the enemy’s position for some six hours or more), and he succoured the wounded under heavy fire. He says he doesn’t know what he was mentioned in despatches for, “unless it was for doing my duty as a 9th Lancer should.”

The severity of his wound effectively prevented him from further active service, certainly in a mounted capacity. He was promoted to Captain on 3 June 1901, and appointed Adjutant of the Motor Volunteer Corps on 4 April 1903. This appointment, which he held until his retirement on 12 December 1906, was no doubt influenced by the fact that Skeffington-Smyth was a keen motorist, having owned his first motor-car in 1898. He subsequently became a General Staff Officer, 1st Grade, and for his services during the Great War was given the Brevet of Lieutenant-Colonel on 3 June 1919. For the first 22 months of the war, he was employed as G.S.O.3 and G.S.O.2 in the Military Operations (later Military Intelligence) Branch at the War Office. At the beginning of February 1917 he went to the Intelligence Staff, G.H.Q., British Armies in France, and subsequently became British liaison officer to General (later Marshal) Phillipe Petain. At the close of the war he was invited to ride with Petain’s staff in the triumphal procession into Metz on 19 November 1918, and it was Petain himself who awarded him the Legion of Honour and Croix de Guerre.

In 1920 he was appointed to The Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms, the King’s Body Guard. He took part in the Jubilee Thanksgiving Service in St Paul’s Cathedral on 6th May 1935, and was one of the Gentlemen-at-Arms posted in the Theatre of the Abbey at the Coronation in 1937. He changed his surname, by license, to Fitzpatrick on 28 May 1938, and died in Ireland after a short illness on 11 March 1939, aged 65. Sold with a large quantity of research, including a comprehensive privately written 170pp biography.