Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A post-War O.B.E. group of eight awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel G. E. L. Rule, Rhodesian African Rifles, late Suffolk Regiment and British South African Police, who as Commanding Officer obtained Colours for the Regiment

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge, silver-gilt; India General Service 1908-35, 1 clasp, Malabar 1921-22 (5820215 Cpl. G. E. Rule. Suff. R.); 1939-1945 Star; Africa Star; War Medal 1939-45; Efficiency Decoration, G.VI.R., 1st issue, silver and silver-gilt, undated as issued, with top Southern Rhodesia riband bar; Army L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., crowned bust, Southern Rhodesia (13. Sgt. G. E. L. Rule.); Coronation 1953, unnamed as issued, contact marks, nearly very fine and better (8) £500-700

O.B.E. London Gazette 1 June 1953.

George Edward Litchfield Rule ‘was born in England in 1900 and enlisted in the Queen’s Westminster Rifles at the outbreak of the Great War, aged 14. He served in the British Army for 12 years, latterly with the Suffolk Regiment, before coming to Rhodesia where he attested in the British South African Police. One year later he transferred and attested in the Rhodesia Staff Corps. He was awarded his Long Service and Good Conduct Medal on 4 December 1935, and was commissioned in 1939. He was appointed commanding officer of the Rhodesian African Rifles in 1951, an appointment he held until his retirement in 1955. He was responsible for obtaining Colours for the Rhodesian African Rifles, and the Colours - the Queen’s Colour and the Regimental Colour - were presented by H.M. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in 1953. It was probably the first time that a regular battalion in Rhodesia had received colours from royalty.’ (Recipient’s obituary refers). He died in 1976.

Sold together with two group photographs, a photographic image of the recipient, and various copied correspondence regarding the award and issue of his L.S. & G.C.