Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War ‘Western Front’ D.C.M. awarded to Company Sergeant-Major Frank Hughes, 5th Canadian Mounted Rifle Battalion

Distinguished Conduct Medal, G.V.R. (110254 C.D. Mjr: F. Hughes. 5/Can: M. Rif: Bn:) good very fine £600-£800

D.C.M. London Gazette 19 August 1916: ‘For conspicuous bravery and resource during an engagement when he led his men with great courage, to new positions under very heavy fire. After being himself wounded, he remained directing and controlling his men, and giving a splendid example of devotion to duty.’

Frank Hughes was born in Oswestry, England, and emigrated to Canada in 1903. He joined the R.C.M.P. and later served 3 years in the 2nd U.S. Cavalry, from which unit he was discharged at Fort Bliss, Texas, in January 1913.

Sold with A History of Oswestry School which gives the following entry:

‘Another remarkable Oswestrian from Canada was Frank Hughes, at School 1894 to 1900. There were several of this family at School and two were killed in the 1st War under 21 years of age. Frank went to Canada soon after he left School and joined the “Mounties”. He then transferred to the U.S.A. Army and served under Captain, later General MacArthur, in the Phillipines. When the 1914 war broke out he came over as a Squadron Sergeant-Major in the Canadian Mounted Rifles. He won the D.C.M., was seriously wounded and in and out of hospital for the next five years. When the Second World War broke out he joined up in the Royal Air Force Regiment and finally died in 1947. What a record!’