Beschreibung:

An interesting Boer War D.S.O. group of twelve awarded to Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Montgomery-Cuninghame, 10th Bart., The Rifle Brigade, who was wounded at Vaal Krantz and afterwards became an Intelligence officer, a career he pursued throughout and beyond the Great War Distinguished Service Order, V.R.; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 5 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Relief of Ladysmith, Transvaal, Laing’s Nek (Capt: Sir T. A. Cuningham, D.S.O. Rif: Bde:); King's South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (Capt. Sir T. A. A. M. Cunninghame, Bt., D.S.O. Rifle Bde.); 1914 Star (Major Sir T. A. A. M. Cuninghame. Bt: D.S.O. Rif: Brig:); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaf (Lt. Col. Sir T. A. A. M. Cunninghame. Bt.) note variations in spelling of surname throughout; French Croix de Guerre, 1914-1918, with palm; United States of America, Distinguished Service Medal (Army), bronze and enamel, the edge officially numbered ‘650’; Czechoslovakia, War Cross 1914-18; France, Legion of Honour, Commander’s neck badge, gold and enamels; Greece, Order of George I, second class set of insignia, comprising neck badge and breast star, silver, silver-gilt and enamels; Greece, Order of the Redeemer, Commander’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamels, the first nine mounted court style, enamel work chipped in places, otherwise good very fine or better (13) £5000-6000 Footnote Thomas Andrew Alexander Montgomery-Cuninghame was born on 30 March 1877, the sixth child and eldest son of Sir William James Montgomery-Cuninghame of Corsehill, V.C., 9th Bart. He was educated at Eton, and Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and succeeded as the 10th Baronet Cuninghame, of Corsehill, co. Ayr, on 11 November 1897. Sir Thomas had an extremely interesting and active career which is recorded in detail in his autobiography, Dusty Measure - A Record of Troubled Times, published in 1939. During the first period of the Boer War he was badly wounded at Vaal Kranz on 6 February 1900, as he later recalled: ‘At the battle of Vaalkrantz we led the attack, and it was there that I was wounded in the leg. A series of pom-pom shells burst on the hill as we scaled it, one of which hit me in six places - most of them superficial. One piece, however, cut a big vein or artery under the knee and the blood spurted high. My sergeant put a tourniquet on and during the process I became aware of a warm stream trickling down the other leg. It was with some relief that I discovered it to be a leak from my water-bottle which had been pierced too. I lay long on the field until night came down and stopped the fight. It was an odd experience to lie there, without much pain or any particular fear, watching the shrapnel bursting over the ridge as our gunners searched the valleys beyond. At night I was carried off by a stretcher-party manned by refugees from Johannesburg. Nothing could have exceeded their their gentleness or their cheery consideration as they tended me on that long black nightmare journey. I think we must have crossed the winding Tugela at least five hundred times, and when we came to a place on the bank where a pontoon bridge ought to have been and wasn’t, the length, breadth, scope and fancy of my bearers in the way of language was informative and picturesque.’ He was mentioned in despatches by General Buller (London Gazette 8 February 1900): ‘Lieutenant Sir T. A. A. M. Cuninghame, Bart., Rifle Brigade, proved himself a thoroughly efficient and active Signalling Officer.’ On recovering from his wound, he soon became involved in Intelligence and his autobiography contains wonderful descriptions of his work. He was the head of a Special Branch which was exclusively devoted to tracking the Transvaal Government Laager and on one occasion their intelligence nearly resulted in the capture of Schalk Burgher. Cuninghame was mentioned in despatches by Lord Roberts (London Gazette 10 September 1901) and created a Companion of the Dis