Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine Boer War D.S.O. group of five awarded to Major C. Leigh, King’s Own Scottish Borderers and Egyptian Army, who was mortally wounded and taken Prisoner of War during the retreat from Mons on 23 August 1914 and died in captivity six days later: ‘although severely wounded and in the open, he ordered his men to leave him and retire across the canal, so there should be no delay in blowing up the bridge in the face of the advancing enemy’ - he was the first Old Harrovian to fall during the Great War

Distinguished Service Order, V.R., silver-gilt and enamel, with integral top riband bar; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 6 clasps, Cape Colony, Paardeberg, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, Wittebergen, South Africa 1901, date clasp a tailor’s copy (Capt. C. Leigh. D.S.O, K.O. Sco: Bord:) engraved naming; Ottoman Empire, Order of Osmanieh, Fourth Class breast badge, silver, silver-gilt, and enamel; Order of the Medjidieh, Third Class neck badge, silver, gold, and enamel, with mint mark to reverse, with neck riband, red enamel damage to crescent part of suspension; Khedive’s Sudan 1896-1908, 1 clasp, Nyam-Nyam, unnamed as issued, except where stated about extremely fine (5) £3,600-£4,400

Provenance: Woodliffe Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, May 2011.

D.S.O. London Gazette 27 September 1901:
‘In recognition of services during the operations in South Africa.’

Ottoman Order of Osmanieh, Fourth Class London Gazette 9 December 1910.

Ottoman Order of the Medjidieh, Third Class London Gazette 2 July 1912.

Chandos Leigh was born on 29 August 1873, the son of the Hon. Sir E. Chandos Leigh, K.C.B., K.C., and was educated at Harrow and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and joined the King's Own Scottish Borderers from the Warwickshire Militia on 29 May 1895, becoming Lieutenant in September 1897. He served in South Africa during the Boer War, where he was employed with Mounted Infantry, and took part in the Relief of Kimberley (also entitled to Relief of Kimberley clasp to his Queen’s South Africa Medal); operations in Orange Free State, including operations at Paardeberg; actions at Poplar Grove, Houtnek (Thoba Mountain), Vet River and Zand River; operations in the Transvaal, including actions near Johannesburg and Diamond Hill; and operations in Orange River Colony, including actions at Wittebergen and Bothaville. For his services in South Africa he was Mentioned in Despatches (London Gazette 4 September 1901), received the Queen’s South Africa Medal with six clasps, and was created a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order. His D.S.O. was presented to him by the King on 29 October 1901.

Leigh was promoted to Captain in April 1901, and then spent ten years in the Egyptian Army. He was with the Western column, in the operations against the Nyam Nyam tribe in the Bahr-el-Ghazal Province, and received the Orders of the Medjidieh and Osmanieh, and the Khedive’s Sudan Medal and clasp. A fine horseman and polo player, he was well known on the Cairo turf, where he more than once headed the winning list of steeplechase riders, both amateur and professional. He had hunted from his boyhood in Warwickshire and Northamptonshire, and more recently with the Meath and Ward Union packs, when he was quartered with his regiment in Ireland. He also took honours in the open jumping at the horse show in Dublin.

Reverting to his parent unit, Leigh was with his battalion at Belfast during the troubled time of the riots at Harland and Wolff shipyards in 1912, and through the many succeeding troubles in Dublin from the strikes in August 1913. Following the outbreak of the Great War he proceeded to France as Officer Commanding, “D” Company, 2nd Battalion, on 15 August 1914, and took part in the Battalion’s initial action at Les Herbieres on the Mons-Conde Canal during the Retreat from Mons.

On the evening of 23 August 1914, the Battalion was positioned on the banks of the Canal at Lock 4. Next to the canal stood a small farm house that was occupied by three Belgians: a man and his wife and their daughter. That night they cooked a fine eve-of-battle dinner for the K.O.S.B. Officers. The lady of the house then invited all those present to sign their names on the tablecloth as a memento of the event. The next day battle began. Leigh himself was an early casualty, posted missing in action following a defence of the canal bridge at Lock 4. Reportedly, when last seen, though severely wounded, he ordered his men to leave him and retire across the canal, so that there should be no delay in blowing up the bridge in the face of the advancing Germans.

After having been returned as ‘missing’ for seven months, news was received in March 1915, from a returned disabled prisoner that Major Leigh had died of his wounds on 29 August 1914, shortly after his capture, and he is buried at Hautrage Military Cemetery, Belgium. He was the first of 644 Old Harrovians to fall in the War.

By way of a postscript, four years later, in November 1918, shortly before the Armistice, Major d’Ewes-Coke, a fellow K.O.S.B. Officer, who had dined with Leigh at the farmhouse back in August 1914, found himself in the same place, overlooking the canal and the lock. At first he could not recognise the house, which was mostly destroyed by four years of war. At last he found the remains of the building, and proceeded to explore. Suddenly out of a door appeared the two women who had hosted and fed the officers four years ago. Invited in, d’Ewes-Coke recounted that he had been their guest on that occasion, and recalled signing the tablecloth. As soon as he mentioned it, the women produced the treasure. Each signature had been embroidered, and at their instance, d’Ewes-Coke signed the tablecloth a second time. Today the tablecloth hangs in the Regimental Museum, and directly in the centre in the embroidered signature ‘C. Leigh’. Accompanying it in the Regimental Museum are the recipient’s two war diaries that contain his personal accounts of the Boer War, as well as photographs and drawings.

Sold with copied research including a copy of Medal News, August 1997, that contains a detailed article on the recipient.