Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare North West Frontier 1937 operations O.B.E. group of nine awarded to Brigadier D. Anstey, Indian Army, late Worcestershire Regiment: he was twice mentioned in despatches for the same operations

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge, with its Royal Mint case of issue; British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Capt.); India General Service 1908-35, 2 clasps, Waziristan 1919-21, North West Frontier 1930-31 (Capt., 20 Infy.); India General Service 1936-39, 2 clasps, North West Frontier 1936-37, North West Frontier 1937-39 (Major, R.I.A.S.C.); 1939-45 Star; War Medal 1939-45; India Service Medal; Civil Defence Long Service, E.II.R., in its Royal Mint case of issue, the first five mounted court-style as worn (with loose second clasps for both India Medals), together with a set of five related dress miniatures, contact wear but generally very fine or better and a most unusual combination of awards (14) £400-500

O.B.E. London Gazette 16 August 1938: ‘In recognition of valuable services rendered in the field in connection with the operations in Waziristan, during the period 16 September to 15 December 1937.’

Daniel Anstey was born in February 1893 and was educated at Fairfield and Keble College, Oxford. Commissioned from the ranks as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Indian Army in July 1915, he served in the Great War with the 2/14 Punjabis and in the Worcestershire Regiment, and was mentioned in despatches for his services as an Acting Captain attached to the 20th Infantry, I.A. in March 1919. Further active service followed with the latter unit in Waziristan 1919-21. Anstey was next engaged in operations on the North West Frontier in 1930 and was given the Brevet of Major in June of the following year. His subsequent services in the same theatre of operations between 1936-39, when he was onetime Deputy Assistant Director of Transport, R.I.A.S.C., won him the O.B.E. and two further “mentions” (London Gazette 18 February 1938 and 16 August 1938). And in the 1939-45 War, which witnessed his advancement to Brigadier in 1945, he received his fourth “mention” (London Gazette 20 June 1941); the Brigadier was placed on the Retired List in 1947 and settled at Salcombe, Devon.

Sold with a fine array of photographs (approximately 50), the vast majority being scenes from the recipient’s career in India from the end of the Great War to the end of the 1939-45 War, via the North West Frontier, the latter theatre of war being well represented in a separate photograph album with approximately 45 images, most of them depicting manoeuvres and operations on the N.W.F. in the late 1930s; together with several official documents pertinent to the recipient’s assorted Honours and Awards, including O.B.E. warrant, four M.I.D. certificates (dated 5 March 1919; 16 November 1937; 6 April 1938 and 20 June 1941) and forwarding certificates for his India Service Medal and Civil Defence Long Service Medal; and a military car pennant and the Brigadier’s uniform rank insignia and cap badge.