Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Sovereign and Illustrious Order of St. John of Jerusalem: Anglia, an attractive breast badge of a Knight of Justice, of the period 1858-1872, probably by Phillips Bros. & Sons, Cockspur St., London, 68 x 40mm., gold and enamelled both sides, embellished in the angles with uniface unicorns and crowned lions, with a high relief crown hinged to the two uppermost points, this surmounted by an orb bearing an eight-pointed star and with a ‘rope’ ring suspension, crown reverse lightly inscribed, ‘1718’, with black ribbon and rosette and a gold stick-pin for attachment, extremely fine and rare £500-600

During the reign of Henry VIII, the ‘English Tongue’ of the Sovereign and Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta was proscribed and eventually it ceased to exist. Steps were taken in the late 1820s to re-establish the ‘English Tongue’ of the Sovereign Order but over the years negotiations proved unsuccessful, the main difficulty being the admission of mainly Protestant English Knights into an essentially Catholic Order. Negotiations finally broke down in 1858 and in 1862 the would-be ‘English Tongue’ declared itself to be the ‘Sovereign and Illustrious Order of St. John of Jerusalem; Anglia’ - an unofficial order, having no connection with either the Sovereign Order or the British Crown. In 1875 a new constitution was promulgated, renaming the body as the ‘Order of St. John of Jerusalem in England.’ By its charitable and humanitarian activities and its royal patronage the Order in 1888 gained official recognition with its first Royal Charter. With Queen Victoria as its Sovereign Head, it was renamed the ‘Grand Priory of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England.’ Further changes to the title occurred in 1926, when it became ‘The Grand Priory in the British Realm of the Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem’ , in 1955 when it became the ‘Most Venerable’ and again in 1974 when it became ‘The Grand Priory of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem.’