Orders, Decorations and Medals

The mounted group of ten miniature dress medals attributed to Lieutenant-Colonel R. R. Sleman, Royal Army Medical Corps, Order of St. John, Officer, silver; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 4 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill; British War and Victory Medals; Territorial Force War Medal 1914-18; Coronation 1911, silver; Volunteer Decoration, E.VII.R., with top bar; Territorial Decoration, G.V.R., with top bar; Order of the League of Mercy, silver-gilt and enamel; Serbia, Order of the White Eagle, 4th class with swords, silver, gold and enamel, rosette on ribbon, mounted as worn, in Spink, London leather case bearing the initials ‘R.R.S.’ on lid, good very fine and better (10) £180-220

Richard Reginald Sleman qualified as a B.A., 1881; L.S.A., Cambridge & St. Mary’s, 1888; M.A., Cambridge, 1891; M.D., Durham, 1906. He served as a Senior Medical Officer, Surgeon-Major, with the C.I.V. in the Boer War during 1900, serving in operations in the Orange Free State, May 1900, including the action at Zand River; operations in the Transvaal in May/June 1900, including actions near Johannesburg and at Diamond Hill and operations in the Transvaal, west of Pretoria, August 1900. For his services he was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 10 September 1901). In 1908 he raised and commanded the 1st (City of London) Field Ambulance, being appointed Lieutenant-Colonel in April 1908. Appointed Local Colonel in October 1914, and later Temporary Colonel, he was A.D.M.S., Malta during the evacuation of casualties from the Dardanelles and Salonika during 1915/16. As Colonel and and A.D.M.S. of the 58th Division, he entered the France/Flanders theatre of war on 15 January 1917. Because of his age and arduous nature of the work he returned to England in March 1917. Lieutenant-Colonel Sleman was demobilized in January 1920 and retired with the rank of Colonel in September 1921. For his services in the war he was awarded the Serbian Order of the White Eagle in 1917. In 1919 he was appointed to the Order of the League of Mercy. He was Inspector of Hospitals for the League of Mercy and he was for a time the League’s Vice-President. He died on 26 March 1937. Sold with a quantity of copied service papers and research.