Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine post-War M.B.E. group of nine awarded to Major R. H. Coxhead, Devonshire Regiment, late Queen’s Royal Regiment

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, M.B.E. (Military) Member’s 2nd type breast badge, silver; 1939-45 Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; General Service Medal 1918-62, 1 clasp, Malaya, G.VI.R. (Major R. H. G. Coxhead. M.B.E. Devon.); Africa General Service 1902-56, 1 clasp, Kenya (Major R. M. Coxhead. M.B.E. Devon.); Coronation 1937; Coronation 1953; Army L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue, Regular Army (5612467 W.O. Cl. 1. R. H. Coxhead. Devon. R.) very fine (9) £400-£500

Provenance: Glendining’s, September 1991.

M.B.E. London Gazette 1 January 1949.

Reginald Herbert Coxhead was born on 19 September 1903 in London. He enlisted into the Devonshire Regiment in May 1922 and was posted to the 1st Battalion. He gained rapid promotion reaching Colour-Sergeant in 1930 and was appointed Orderly Room Sergeant and Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant in November 1933. Coxhead was commissioned as Quartermaster into The Queen’s Royal Regiment in March 1941. During the Second War he served in the Far East Land Forces, Middle East Land Forces and NW Europe holding posts as Camp Commandant Combined Operations, Transhipment Area Commander with a Beach Group and Deputy Assistant Adjutant General 53rd Welsh Division which subsequently became 2nd Division. He was transferred back to the Devons in 1948 as Quartermaster, 1st Battalion and was present with them during the operations in Malaya. He transferred to the 4th Battalion in 1953 and served with them in North Africa during the Suez Crisis serving as part of Task Force 56 commanded by Admiral Sir Ralph Edwards. The Regimental History of the time written by Lieutenant-Colonel J. K. Windeatt O.B.E. refers to Coxhead in the following glowing terms:
‘Army manoeuvres in the U.K. do not provide the ideal launching pad for an emergency operation in the Mediterranean, so it is not difficult to appreciate some of the administrative problems which face the Battalion and its remarkable QM Reg Coxhead.’

Coxhead was appointed M.B.E. in 1949 and advanced Major in 1950. He was present in Kenya during the Mau Mau operations when the Battalion operated with a small Command Post away from the main HQ at Karatina thus adding to his problems as Quartermaster. He was a good sportsman being Captain of the Battalion football team and in athletics his ability as a half mile runner won him the ‘Salamanca Cup’ on more than one occasion. Such was his standing within the regiment, when the 1st Battalion Colours were laid up in Exeter Cathedral in 1962, as a former Regimental Sergeant Major, he carried one of the 1924 Colours from the Cathedral Altar to the Regimental Chapel. Coxhead died at his home in Selsey, West Sussex in 1969.

Sold with copied research including a large photograph of the 1st Battalion, Devonshire Regiment football team, featuring Coxhead, circa early 1930s.