Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The mounted group of seven miniature dress medals worn by Brigadier-General C. F. de S. Murphy, Royal Berkshire Regiment and Royal Flying Corps

Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel, with later integral top riband bar, traces of lacquer/adhesive to central medallions; Military Cross, G.V.R.; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 2 clasps, Cape Colony, South Africa 1902; 1914-15 Star [sic]; British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves; Belgium, Kingdom, Order of the Crown, silver and enamel, with rosette on riband, white enamel damage to reverse of last, generally very fine (7) £180-220

Provenance: Buckland, Dix & Wood, October 1995; Dix Noonan Webb, September 2000.

D.S.O. London Gazette 1 January 1917.

M.C. London Gazette 3 June 1916.

Belgian Order of the Crown, 4th Class London Gazette 24 September 1917.

Cyril Francis de Sales Murphy was born in Cork on 17 May 1882 and was educated at Beaumont College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Royal Berkshire Regiment on 18 January 1902, and served with the Regiment during the Boer War in the Cape Colony from April to 31 May 1902. He was promoted Lieutenant on 1 July 1904, and Captain on 3 June 1911, and was a member of the Army Gymnastic Staff from 1910 to 1913.

A pioneering flyer, Murphy obtained his Aviator’s Certificate, No. 599, at Bristol School, Salisbury Plain, on 20 August 1913, and was appointed a Flying Officer in the Royal Flying Corps (Military Wing) on 30 June 1914. He served on attachment to the Royal Flying Corps during the Great War on the Western Front from 9 September 1914, and served throughout the War on the Western Front at Ypres, Messines and on the Somme. Having been promoted Wing Commander (Temporary Lieutenant-Colonel) on 12 April 1916, in July of that year he was appointed to the Command of 13th (Army) Wing, comprising Nos. 11 and 23 Squadrons, and in April 1917 proceeded to the Command of 2nd (Corps) Wing, comprising Nos. 6, 21, 42, 46 and 53 Squadrons. He was appointed a Brigade Commander on 6 March 1918, and was promoted Temporary Brigadier-General on 25 March of that year. For his services during the Great War he was twice Mentioned in Despatches (London Gazettes 22 June 1915 and 4 January 1917), was awarded the Military Cross and the Distinguished Service Order, and was created an Officer of the Belgian Order of the Crown. After the War he briefly commanded R.A.F. station Northolt, before resigning his commission on 17 September 1919, being granted the honorary rank of Brigadier-General.

Brigadier-General Murphy attested for the Cambridge Special Constabulary on 7 May 1926, and served as a Special Constable during the General Strike (5-12 May 1926). During the Second World War he was employed at the Air Ministry from 1939 to 1944. He died at Banaghan, Co. Offaly, Ireland, on 7 January 1961.

For the recipient’s related full-sized medals, see Lot 17.