Auction Catalogue

27 & 28 September 2016

Starting at 10:00 AM

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Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

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Lot

№ 784

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28 September 2016

Hammer Price:
£2,400

A scarce ‘Waziristan’ 1937 D.S.O. group of ten awarded to Brigadier N. L. St. P. Bunbury, Indian Army

Distinguished Service Order, G.VI.R., 1st issue, silver-gilt and enamel, reverse of suspension bar undated as issued, with integral top riband bar; British War and Victory Medals (Capt. N. L. St. P. Bunbury.); India General Service 1908-35, 2 clasps, Waziristan 1919-21, North West Frontier 1930-31 (Capt. N. L. St. P. Bunbury, Zhob Levy.); India General Service 1936-39, 1 clasp, North West Frontier 1936-37 (Lt. Col. N. L. St. P. Bunbury, 6-13 F.F. Rif.); France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937, mounted as worn and housed in a leather case, with the recipient’s related miniature awards and riband bar, unofficial retaining rod between clasps on first I.G.S., nearly very fine and better (10) £1600-2000

D.S.O. London Gazette 10 December 1937.

Noel Louis St. Pierre Bunbury was born at Woolwich, London, on Christmas Day 1890, the son of Lieutenant-Colonel William St. Pierre Bunbury and a scion of the Bunbury baronets of Stanney Hall, Cheshire, and was educated at Bedford School and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He sailed for India on 5 October 1910 in H.M.S. Plassy and joined his Regiment at Bareilly, He served during the Great War in Mesopotamia and during the Russian Intervention in Siberia, and then with the Indian Army in Waziristan 1920-21, and on the North West Frontier in 1930. In July 1932 he transferred to the 6th Royal Battalion (Scinde), 13th Frontier Force Rifles, taking over the appointment of Second-in-Command. In early 1934, whilst he was temporarily in command of the Battalion, the Commanding Officer Colonel Inskip being away in Delhi, orders were received for the Battalion to be, at six hours’ notice, in readiness to join an expedition against the Madda Khel Wzirs, and although the state of readiness continued for two months in the end nothing materialised. At the end of March Colonel Inskip left the Battalion on appointment to Army Headquarters, and after a spell as Commandant, Bunbury was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel and appointed Commanding Officer of the Battalion on 7 December 1934. He served with them in Waziristan, 1936-37. For his service in Waziristan he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, specifically for service between the dates 25 November 1936 to 16 January 1937. Appointed Acting Commanding Officer of the Razmak Brigade, India, with the local rank of Colonel, on 9 August 1937, he relinquished command on 1 October of that year, and was promoted Brevet Colonel. Appointed to the General Staff, India Office, 24 April 1938, with the rank of Colonel (backdated by a year) and acting Brigadier, he subsequently served during the Second War as a Brigade Commander in India from 1941, and was appointed an aide-de-camp to H.M. the King on 5 April 1943. He retired on 1 July 1944, with the honorary rank of Brigadier, and later served as Officer Commanding 12th County of London Home Guard Battalion between 1952 and 1955. In retirement he wrote the Regimental History of the 6th Royal Battalion, 13th Frontier Force Rifles, 1934-47. He died at Hale, Cheshire, on 31 January 1971.