Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War ‘Civil Division’ M.B.E. group of four awarded to Phyllis Hermione, the Honourable Mrs. Arthur Coke, later Lady Howard-Vyse, who served with the Young Men’s Christian Association during the Great War

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, M.B.E. (Civil) Member’s 1st type lady’s shoulder badge, silver, hallmarks for London 1917, on 2nd type lady’s bow riband; British War Medal 1914-20 (Hon. Mrs. P. H. Coke.); Defence Medal; Coronation 1953, unnamed as issued, on lady’s bow riband, in card box of issue; together with the related miniature awards, these mounted as worn, the MBE on 2nd type riband, and both the MBE and Coronation Medal on bow ribands, good very fine (4) £300-£400

M.B.E. London Gazette 15 March 1918:
‘For services in connection with the War in France, Egypt and Salonika.’

Phyllis Hermione, the Honourable Mrs. Arthur Coke, later Lady Howard-Vyse, was born Miss Phyllis Hermione Drury at Sydenham Hill, Surrey, on 28 August 1885 and married the Hon. Arthur Coke, second son of Viscount Coke (later the 3rd Earl of Leicester), on 10 May 1906. She served during the Great War with the Young Men’s Christian Association at Abbeville from 1915 to 1918 (entitled to the British War Medal only), and for her services in charge of the Y.M.C.A. arrangements at 3rd Army Rest Camp was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire.

The Hon. Arthur Coke served during the Great War initially in the Royal Horse Guards on the Western Front, before transferring to the Armoured Cars Division, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and was in charge of three Maxim machine-guns on the S.S. River Clyde during the Gallipoli Landings, 25 April 1915. He was killed in action during the Battle of Krithis on 2 May 1915; he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Helles Memorial, Turkey.

Mrs. Coke remarried the army officer Richard Howard-Vyse in Cairo on 15 October 1925. Knighted in 1935, and advanced Major-General, he subsequently served as Honorary Colonel of the Royal Horse Guards, and was Gold Stick in Waiting at the Coronation of H.M. Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. He died in December 1962.

Lady Howard-Vyse died at Newbury, Berkshire, on 22 September 1976. Her only son, Anthony Coke, succeeded his cousin to the Earldom of Leicester in 1976.

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