Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The mounted group of eight miniature dress medals attributed to Major-General His Serene Highness the Duke of Teck, father of H.M. Queen Mary and the great-grandfather of H.M. Queen Elizabeth II

The Most Venerable Order of St. John of Jerusalem, gold and enamel; Jubilee 1887, gold; Volunteer Decoration, V.R., silver and silver-gilt, lacking integral top riband bar; Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, dated reverse, 1 clasp, Tel-El-Kebir; Turkey, Ottoman Empire, Order of Osmania, silver, gold, and enamel, reverse central medallion missing; Khedive’s Star 1882; Austria, Empire, Medal of Merit, Franz Joseph, gilt, with crown suspension; Austria, Empire, General Service Medal, mounted as worn, generally very fine (8) £800-1200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to Members of the Nobility and The Royal Household.

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Provenance: Spink Medal Circular, September 1999.

His Serene Highness Prince Francis Paul Charles Louis Alexander, Duke of Teck, was born at Osijek, Slavonia (now Croatia) on 28 August 1937, the son of Duke Alexander of Wurttemberg and his wife the Countess of Hohenstein. He entered the Austrian Army in 1854 as a Lieutenant in the 1st Lancers, and transferred to the Guard Squadron in 1856. Promoted Captain in the 7th Hussars, he acted as an Orderly Officer to Field Marshal Count Wimpffen and served throughout the Franco-Prussian War, receiving the Austrian Medal of Merit for distinguished services at the Battle of Solferino. He retired from the Austrian Army in 1866, following his marriage, on the 12 June of that year, to Princess Mary of Cambridge, the younger daughter of Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, and the granddaughter of H.M. King George III. Appointed an Honorary Colonel in the 1st City of London Artillery the following year, he served in the Egyptian Campaign of 1882 on General Sir Garnet Wolseley’s Staff, and was awarded the Turkish Order of Osmania 1st Class. Advanced to Major-General in 1893, he died at his home in Richmond Park, London, on 21 January 1900, and is buried in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor.
He was created Duke of Teck by the King of Wurttemberg in 1871, and he and his wife Princess Mary had three sons and a daughter, May, the future Queen Mary.