Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An O.B.E. attributed to A. W. Burkill, Esq., Shanghai Defence Force

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Civil) Officer’s 1st type, silver-gilt, hallmarks for London 1928, in its Garrard & Co. case of issue, nearly extremely fine £80-120

O.B.E. London Gazette 1 March 1929.

Albert ‘Bertie’ William Burkill was born in Shanghai in 1873, was educated at Bromsgrove School, Worcestershire, where he played for the cricket XI, and returned to live in Shanghai in 1892. His father, Albert Robson Burkill, had arrived in Shanghai in 1857, an early Shanghai adventurer out to make his fortune. He started by joining the firm of Messrs Glover, Dow & Co. before starting his own company A. R. Burkill & Sons, in the silk business, with Bertie taking over as Chairman of the company on his father’s death in 1913.

Burkill served briefly on the Shanghai Municipal Council and on two occasions was Master of the Shanghai Paper Hunt Club; he was also the Chairman of the Shanghai Race Club and President of the Shanghai Rugby Football Club. Created an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in the delayed New Year’s Honours list of 1929 for services to the Shanghai Defence Force, he returned to England in 1935, and died in January 1952 in Kensington, London.

Sold with the O.B.E. Bestowal Document, Central Chancery enclosure; and two Congratulatory Letters.