Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Baronet’s Badge, of the United Kingdom, silver-gilt and enamel, the reverse inscribed ‘Churchman of Abbey Oaks 1917’ and hallmarked London 1929, complete with full neck cravat in its fitted leather case of issue, two small enamel chips, otherwise good very fine £800-£1,000

Sir Arthur Charles Churchman, Bt., 1st Baron Woodbridge, was born on 7 September 1867, son of Henry Charles Churchman, tobacco merchant, of Paget House, Ipswich, and his wife Mary Anna Eade, daughter of Charles Eade. Sir William Churchman, 1st Baronet, was his elder brother. Educated at Ipswich School, Churchman went into partnership with his elder brother William, in the family tobacco firm which had been founded by their great-grandfather William Churchman in 1790, which was renamed W. A. & A. C. Churchman. which at one time employed over 1,000 people. About 1904 the company was combined as Imperial Tobacco and British-American Tobacco when Churchman became vice-chairman of the British American Tobacco Company. Churchman was elected Mayor of Ipswich in 1901, his brother William had been mayor between 1899 and 1900. A lieutenant-colonel in the Essex and Suffolk Royal Garrison Artillery between 1905 and 1909 and commanded a Territorial Force Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment as a temporary lieutenant-colonel in the First World War. In 1917 created a baronet, of Abbey Oaks in the Parish of Sproughton in the County of Suffolk and was known as Sir Arthur Churchman, Bt, between 1917 and the Birthday Honours List of 1932 when he was elevated to the peerage as the 1st Lord Woodbridge of Ipswich. In 1920, returned to Parliament for Woodbridge, which he remained until 1929. Appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Suffolk in 1930 and served as High Sheriff of the county in 1931 and between 1932 and 1949, as Lord Woodbridge was High Steward of Ipswich. He died at The Mount Nelson Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa on 2 February 1949, aged 81, when both the baronetcy and barony became extinct, his net estate was valued in excess of £1.3 million.