The Collection of Medals to the Medical Services formed by Colonel D.G.B. Riddick

The Great War C.B.E., D.S.O. group of six awarded to Colonel B. B. Burke, Royal Army Medical Corps

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, C.B.E. (Military) Commander’s 1st type neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel, enamel damage; Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel, complete with top bar, slight enamel damage; 1914 Star, with clasp (Major, R.A.M.C.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Col.); India General Service 1908-35, 1 clasp, Waziristan 1921-24 (Lt. Col.) very fine and better (6) £1300-1500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals to the Medical Services formed by Colonel D.G.B. Riddick.

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Bernard Bruce Burke was born at Portarlington on 7 January 1876. Educated at Dublin High School and the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland, he was employed as a Surgeon with the Red Cross Steamship Company and thence as an Assistant Surgeon in the Nottingham General Dispensary during 1898. He entered the R.A.M.C. as a Lieutenant in June 1900, being promoted to Captain in June 1903 and Major in December 1911. He served in India, 1901-07 and in Africa, 1910-13, becoming a specialist in Otorhinolaryngology in 1908. With the B.E.F. in France, 1914-15 and 1916-19, he was C.O. of the 97th Field Ambulance, 1916-17, C.O. of the 12th Stationary Hospital, 1917-18 and A.D.M.S., 1918-19. Promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in December 1917; he served as Temporary Colonel, March 1918-March 1919. For his wartime services he was four times mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 19 October 1914, 1 January 1916, 30 December 1918, 10 July 1919) and awarded the C.B.E. (1919) and D.S.O. (London Gazette 14 January 1916). Promoted to Colonel in December 1921, he served in India, 1919-25 and then again from 1927 to 1930 when he was invalided. Colonel Burke was placed on Retired Pay due to ill health on 25 January 1931; he died at Worthing, Sussex on 11 December 1938. Sold with original bestowal documents for the C.B.E. and D.S.O.; Lieutenant-Colonel commission document and D.S.O. Statutes booklet; also with copied research.