Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A good Great War ‘Egypt’ campaign M.C. group of eight awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel S. B. G. Simmons, Leinster Regiment, late Lancashire Fusiliers and later Royal Tank Regiment

Military Cross, G.V.R.; The Order of St John of Jerusalem, Officer, silver and enamel; 1914-15 Star (2.Lieut., Lan. Fus.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut.); France & Germany Star; Defence & War Medals, mounted Court style as worn, a little polished, therefore generally nearly very fine or better (8) £600-800

M.C. London Gazette 1 February 1919: ‘For conspicuous gallantry and determined leadership during a raid on Ghurabeh Ridge on the night of 12th-13th August, 1918. He led an attack against thirty enemy, who opened fire with a machine gun at close range, capturing the gun and twenty-one prisoners. Later, he ably assisted his company commander in organising two successive assaults, which he led personally.’

Sewell Baskerville Grattan Simmons served in Gallipoli with the 8th Bn. Lancashire Fusiliers from 8 October 1915 to January 1916, and with the Eygptian Expeditionary Force from April to July 1916. He transferred to the Leinster Regiment on 30 July 1916 and served in Macedonia until September 1917, when he once again joined the Eygptian Expeditionary Force, serving with it until the end of October 1918. He was promoted to Lieutenant in January 1918 and transferred to the Prince of Wales’s Volunteers in August 1922, attached to the Tank Corps. He became Lieutenant in the Royal Tank Corps, September 1923; Captain, March 1928; Adjutant, February 1929 to January 1932; Major, Royal Tank Regiment, October 1937; acting Lieutenant-Colonel, August to October 1940; temporary Lieutenant-Colonel, November 1940 to April 1942 and again in from June 1942 until June 1944 when his rank was confirmed.