Medals from the Collection of Peter Duckers

A Great War ‘Mesopotamia’ C.M.G. and C.I.E. group of nine awarded to Brigadier-General d’Arcy C. Brownlow, Indian Army, Deputy Judge Advocate General in Mesopotamia, Principal Military Governor of Basra 1914-16, late 21st Punjab Infantry

The Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, C.M.G., Companion’s breast badge converted for neck wear, silver-gilt and enamels; The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, C.I.E., Companion’s 2nd type breast badge, gold and enamels, complete with top suspension brooch; India General Service 1895-1902, 1 clasp, Punjab Frontier 1897-98 (Lt. D’A. C. Brownlow 21st Pjb. Infy.); India General Service 1908-35, 1 clasp, North West Frontier 1908 (Major D’A. C. Brownlow. 21st Punjabis.); 1914-15 Star (Major D’A. C. Brownlow. I.A.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaf (Brig. Gen. D’A. C. Brownlow.); Delhi Durbar 1911 (Major d’A. C. Brownlow 21st Punjabis); Russia, Order of St Stanislas, 2nd class with swords, bronze-gilt and enamels by Edouard, mounted court style for display, nearly extremely fine (9) £1,800-£2,200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of Peter Duckers.

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C.M.G. London Gazette 25 August 1917: ‘In recognition of services rendered in connection with Military Operations in the Field in Mesopotamia.’

C.I.E. London Gazette 18 August 1916: ‘Principal Military Governor of the Occupied Territories, Basra.’

St Stanislas, 2nd class (with swords) London Gazette 22 August 1916.

M.I.D. London Gazette 5 April 1916 (H.Q. & Staff, operations at Kut-el-Amara, 28 September 1914); 5 April 1916 (as D.J.A.G., operations in Mesopotamia from 6th November, 1914, to 14th April, 1915); 19 October 1916 (The administration of the Base Depots, under Lieutenant-Colonel d’A. C. Brownlow, Base Commandant, has been carried out in a highly satisfactory manner); 15 August 1917; 27 August 1918; 21 February 1919; 5 June 1919.

d’Arcy Charles Brownlow was born on 30 October 1869, youngest son of Colonel Charles St. George Brownlow, late 15th Bengal Native Infantry (medals sold Dix Noonan Webb, 11 December 2013). He was commissioned into the 1st Leinster Regiment on 21 September 1889, and was serving with them in Agra in 1891 as a 2nd Lieutenant. He was appointed to the Indian Staff Corps on 2 December 1891, and posted to the 21st Punjab Infantry. He served on the North West Frontier 1897-98, Malakand Field Force, Uthman Khel expedition, Buner; attack on the Tanga Pass (Medal and clasp); and on the North West Frontier 1908, operations in Mohmand (Medal and clasp).

Brownlow was appointed Deputy Judge Advocate General, General Staff of Southern Command, 1 May 1913, and on the outbreak of war served in this capacity with the 6th Division. He was appointed by General Barrett as Principal Military Governor of the Occupied Territories, Basra, in November 1915, and took up residence in what had been the German Consulate, serving in this capacity to 1916 (C.I.E.). He continued to serve throughout the remainder of the war in Mesopotamia as Base Commandant at Basra (C.M.G., despatches eight times, Order of St Stanislas).

‘To revert, however, to Basra: General Barrett’s first act was to appoint as Military Governor of Basra, Major d’Arcy Brownlow, Deputy Judge Advocate General of the 6th Division. No better choice could have been made; his knowledge of Military Law enabled him, by instinct rather than by much study (for which there was no time), to shape the growth of the local civil organisation in its early days on sound lines; his official position enabled him to exercise his functions without undue interference from energetic commanders or over zealous departmental subordinates. His Assistant was Mr R. W. Bullard, who as Acting British Consul in Basra had been a spectator of the bellicose tumults and the feverish war preparations of the Turks. He, at all events, knew what passions lurked in the grisly depths below the surface of affairs, and his knowledge of the country, combined with a sense of humour and, on occasions, a mordant tongue, were of priceless value at this critical moment. Tom Dexter, for thirty years in R.I.M.S. Comet, the stationnaire of the Baghdad Residency, was Major Brownlow’s personal assistant: he, too, had peculiar qualifications; he knew Arabs of all classes even better than he knew Arabic; he was respected, and he knew the Tigris.

The Military Governor’s first concern was public order: British and Indian Military Police, under the Provost Marshal, were on the streets within a few hours of the arrival of the force, but they had their limitations, and the size of the I.E.F. “D” was too exiguous to make it possible to spare them in adequate numbers...

In considering the very rapid growth of a somewhat elaborate form of administration at Basra, and later elsewhere, it must be borne in mind that the necessity of establishing a sanitary system approaching European standards was imperatively forced on us by military needs. The force arrived in winter, in a wet year; the desert was a sea of mud; the date-groves were foetid morasses; the few elevated areas were for the most part occupied by reed huts and surrounded by refuse heaps, which were tolerated by the local population, but would have been fatal to raw-troops. Billeting had to be resorted to on a large scale, which necessitated and elaborate sanitary organisation; and this, in turn, involved detailed supervision of local amenities by the Military Governor, who found it necessary within a few weeks to appoint deputies for Basra City and Ashar. On them fell the burden of providing billets and enforcing sanitary regulations: the first would have been an intolerable burden on the population had it not been decided, from the outset, to pay a fair rent for all the houses taken, and to require the complete removal therefrom of all the inhabitants. The recognition of this principal, not without reluctance by the military authorities, saved endless friction and made it possible to maintain in the various billets a standard of cleanliness which would in any other circumstances have been impracticable; nevertheless, as will be seen hereafter, billeting remained to the last one of the principal grievances of the civil population.’ (Loyalties, by Sir A. Wilson, refers)

Brownlow retired with the honorary rank of Brigadier-General on 13 September 1919, aged 49. He was afterwards Deputy Lord Lieutenant for Sussex. As Chairman of the Sussex Cricket Club and a member of the M.C.C., he received frequent mentions in the local press. He died at Hove on 21 March 1938.