Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A superb Great War Brigade Commander’s C.B., C.M.G., Battalion Commander’s D.S.O. group of seven awarded to Brigadier-General C. E. Heathcote, King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, who was attached to the West African Frontier Force between 1904-09, when he was a key player in the extraordinary Anglo-German West Africa operations of 1908, and who in the Great War commanded several units of the K.O.Y.L.I., in addition to the 4th Lincolnshires and 7th Leicestershires: his D.S.O. undoubtedly reflected his gallant services in 1914, when he was dangerously wounded at Messines

The Most Honourable Order of The Bath, C.B. (Military), Companion’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel; The Order of St. Michael and St. George, C.M.G., neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel; Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel; Africa General Service 1902-56, 2 clasps, S. Nigeria 1905-06, West Africa 1908 (Capt., S.N. Regt.); 1914 Star, with clasp (Major, Yorks. L.I.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oakleaf (Brig. Gen.) enamel work slightly chipped in places and minor contact marks, generally good very fine (7) £1800-2200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Richard Magor Collection of Medals Relating to India and Africa, and other Fine Awards.

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C.B. London Gazette 3 June 1919: ‘For valuable services rendered in connection with military operations in France and Flanders.’

C.M.G. London Gazette 11 April 1918: ‘For distinguished services in connection with the military operations culminating in the capture of Jerusalem.’

D.S.O. London Gazette 18 February 1915.

Mention in Despatches London Gazette 18 September 1906 (Southern Nigeria); 13 March 1908 (Southern Nigeria); 21 December 1909 (Southern Nigeria); 19 October 1914; 17 February 1915; 15 June 1916; 7 October 1918; 20 December 1918 and 3 July 1919.

Charles Edensor Heathcote was born in April 1875 and was educated at Bedford School. Commissioned into the Yorkshire Light Infantry in March 1894, he was advanced to Lieutenant in January 1898 and to Captain in April 1900. Then following a stint as ‘Superintendent of Gymnasia’ on Malta during the South African War, Heathcote transferred, on attachment, in June 1904, to the West African Frontier Force.

His first operational outing in Southern Nigeria was in the Onitsha Hinterland Expedition of 1904-05, but it was for his services in the Bende-Onitsha Hinterland Expedition in the following year that he earned the Africa General Service with ‘S. Nigeria 1905-06’ clasp, and his first mention in despatches. Two columns, one of them commanded by Brevet Major (afterwards Marshal of the Royal Air Force) J. M. “Boom” Trenchard, joined forces at the Imo River, to avenge the murder of Dr. Stewart, he whose ‘body was cut up into little pieces and distributed around for consumption as a fetish.’ As stated in Magor, there was a lot of severe fighting, so we may be sure Heathcote’s first ‘mention’ was a well-merited one. And for like services in another Southern Nigerian enterprise in 1906, he notched up his second ‘mention’.


But the highlight of Heathcote’s African sojourn, in his capacity as a commander of the Anglo-German Boundary Commission escort, made up of men of the 1st Southern Nigeria Rifles, was his participation in the West Africa operations of 1908. To a certain extent these have already been alluded to in the footnotes for Dr. G. Beatty’s similar Medal and clasp entitlement, one of just 200-odd issued, some of them, quite uniquely, to German servicemen (see Lot 369). But as designated C.O. of the British military element in this remarkable example of Anglo-German co-operation, it would be fitting to turn to Magor for a greater account of Heathcote’s part in the drama:

‘Captain Heathcote spent the 23rd [of December 1908] in reconnaissance awaiting Oberleutnant von Stephani and issued his orders for attacking the Gaya that evening, the information paragraph of which read:

‘The enemy consisting of fighting men or the whole of the Sonkwala and their friends from neighbouring villages are reported to be full of fight. They have blocked and staked all roads leading across the valley from West to East and the roads leading from North to South at the north end of the valley. They have sentries out in the Valley.’

The plan was for the baggage, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Whitlock, to leave the camp at 4.45 a.m. and move to Lieutenant Homan’s camp at Sonkwala. Captain Heathcote and the main body, consisting of Lieutenants Downes and Hicks, Captain Beatty the Medical Officer, 2 W.Os, 49 O.Rs with 20 stretcher bearers and 6 bearers carrying chop and water, to move out at 5 a.m. on the road running East and to attack the enemy from the North. Oberleutnant von Stephani with his force, accompanied by Captain Moore, was to move out with the main body and attack the enemy near the foothills on the East of the valley. Lieutenant Homan with 34 rifles of the 1st S.N.R. was to move out of his camp as soon as the baggage party arrived to co-operate on the flank of the main body. The columns were to mutually support each other.

On the 24th the two columns marched from the Bush camp for half a mile, crossed the river, and separated for their objectives. They immediately lost contact with each other, owing to the dense growth and high elephant grass and in the absence of guides both parties lost their way.

Captain Heathcote’s column marched for 2 hours South along the river, which they crossed twice, and drew near the enemy who could be heard hooting and calling one another. The roads were blocked with trees and prickly stuff with spikes and pits and 2 men had been badly spiked through the foot. At length they emerged into some yam fields, the enemy opened fire and killed a carrier. A fire fight developed and the bushmen would not stand but worked round the flanks. Then several hundred armed bushmen appeared in the yam fields below and the voice of the Chief, prominent in the fight on the 11th, could be heard urging them on to attack. They offered a splendid target for the maxim which unfortunately again jammed and was out of action for some time.

The German column and their maxim could be heard but no very heavy fighting was apparent. In the meantime Lieutenant Homan had also become engaged and his movements relieved the attack on the main column. He joined up with Heathcote and they drove fresh bodies of the enemy into the hills ...’

And on Boxing Day, Heathcote returned to the fray with 120 ranks of the 1st S.N.R., a German detachment and 3 maxims, moving out to attack the enemy compound which had given the Germans so much trouble on the 24th. On that occasion there was some desultory fighting and much hooting from the enemy, who eventually thought better of it and made off.

Heathcote, who was again mentioned in despatches, remained on attachment to the West African Frontier Force until September 1909, when he returned home to rejoin his regiment. Advanced to Major in November 1913, the advent of hostilities in August of the following year found him employed as a ‘Superintendent of Gymnasia’ in Eastern Command.

He departed for France with the 2nd Battalion, Yorkshire Light Infantry on 31 October 1914, firstly serving as a Company Commander, but as casualties mounted he quickly rose to command, and was present in the bloody fighting at Mons, Le Cateau, the Marne, the Aisne and Ypres, finally being dangerously wounded at Messines. Mentioned in despatches and gazetted for the D.S.O. in February 1915, he rejoined his Battalion as a Second-in-Command at the Front in April of the latter year.

Subsequently engaged in the Second Battle of Ypres, he again held command of his Battalion from May to September 1915, in which latter month he was transferred as C.O. to the 4th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment. Heathcote took the 4th Lincolnshires through Loos and the capture of the Hohenzollern Redoubt, service in Egypt as part of the Suez Canal Defences, and once more back in France at Vimy Ridge, until May 1916, when he was appointed a Temporary Brigadier-General and given command of the 7th Infantry Brigade.



Taking the Brigade through further Vimy operations, and the First Battle of the Somme, he was next given command of the 9th Battalion King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, with whom he fought in the Somme operations of September 1916, when he was invalided. On returning to the Front in the new year, Heathcote was appointed to the command of the 7th Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment, and fought with it throughout the Battle of Arras. But in May 1917, he was ordered to Egypt to lead the 231st Infantry Brigade.

There he was quickly back in action, fighting in the Battles of Bersheba and Sheria, the operations west of Jerusalem and at the subsequent capture of that place, and in the fighting astride the Nablus Road. He then took 231st Brigade to the Western Front, where it first went into battle south of Merville in September 1918. From then until the end of hostilities, the Brigade was constantly in action, participating in the Third Battle of the Somme and the attack on the Hindenburg Line, east of Ronssoy and Templeux-le-Guerard, in addition to the fighting which resulted in the re-occupation of Aubers Ridge and Lille, and the fall of Tournai. Heathcote, who had meanwhile accumulated five more ‘mentions’, was created a C.B. and C.M.G., and awarded a 3rd class Order of the Nile.

Returning to normal regimental duties in the early 1920s, he commanded the 2nd Battalion, King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry in India from 1922-24, but came home in the latter year to take up duties as Inspector of Army Physical Training. Then in 1928 he witnessed the final days of the Army of Occupation in the Rhine, under the command of General Sir William “Bill” Thwaites (see Lot 441), and returned home to take up his last post as C.O. of 15th Infantry Brigade at York. The General retired to Forest Row, Sussex and died in September 1947, aged 72 years.