Beschreibung:

The Brian Ritchie Collection of H.E.I.C. and British India Medals The magnificent ‘Defence of Sadon 1891’ D.S.O. group awarded to Lieutenant-General Sir George MacMunn, K.C.B., K.C.S.I., D.S.O., Royal Artillery, later Commander-in-Chief in Mesopotamia and Quarter-Master General in India (a) Distinguished Service Order, V.R., silver-gilt and enamels, complete with top suspension brooch (b) India General Service 1854-94, 2 clasps, Burma 1889-92, Chin Hills 1892-93 (Lieut. G. F. Macmunn, No. 6 Bo. Mt. By.) (c) India General Service 1895-1902, 3 clasps, Punjab Frontier 1897-98, Samana 1897, Tirah 1897-98 (Lieutt. G. F. MacMunn, No. 1 Kashmir Mn. By.) (d) Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal (Major G. F. MacMunn, D.S.O. R.F.A.) (e) King’s South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (Major G. F. MacMunn, D.S.O. R.F.A.) (f) 1914-15 Star (Bt. Col. G. F. Macmunn, D.S.O.) (g) British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaf (Maj. Gen. Sir G. F. MacMunn) (h) General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Kurdistan (Maj. Gen. Sir G. F. MacMunn) (i) Defence Medal 1939-45, unnamed as issued (j) Delhi Durbar 1911, unnamed as issued (k) Jubilee 1935, unnamed as issued (l) Legion of Honour, Officer’s breast badge, gold and enamels (m) Royal Artillery Institution, silver prize medal, 47mm (Lieut. G. F. MacMunn, D.S.O., R.A.) (n) The King’s Medal, Royal Society of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce, G.V.R., silver, 55mm (Lieut-General Sir G. F. MacMunn, K.C.B., K.C.S.I., D.S.O., for the Sir George Birdwood memorial Lecture “The Romance of the Martial Races of India”. Session 1931-32) contained in its fitted presentation case, the first thirteen on original ‘Court’ mounting as worn, some minor enamel chipping but generally very fine or better £5000-6000 Footnote George Fletcher MacMunn, the eldest son of Surgeon J. A. MacMunn, P.M.O., Chelsea Hospital, and Charlotte, daughter of the Rev. George Mathias, Chaplain Royal, was born on 14 August 1869, and brought up at the Royal Hospital, ‘in the heart of all the glory and pathos of Army tradition’. His nurse was the widow of a Sergeant in the 32nd Light Infantry and had been through the Defence of the Lucknow Residency; and his childhood companions men who had served from Waterloo to Lucknow - ‘old James McKay of the ‘Forty-Twa’, John Irby who had lost a leg in the Quarries at Inkerman, Johnnie Green of the Rifle Brigade, all scars and wounds from the Mutiny ... and so forth’. Educated at Kensington Grammar School and ‘The Shop’, he was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in July 1888, and the following autumn embarked with the 55th Field Battery for India under a Major ‘of extreme outward ferocity and two senior subalterns whose reputations were second to none in the regiment’. ‘Steeped to the teeth in tradition’, as he was, he was fascinated to find that the dining table in the Gunner Mess at Kirkee was the one on which the bodies of officers of the 24th Foot had been laid out after Chilianwala . The 24th sold it to the 14th Light Dragoons who used it during the Mutiny, and in turn they had sold it when they left for home. Indeed nothing ever changed very much in cantonmental India, as MacMunn discovered when he asked an old General what it was like before the Mutiny. “Oh,” came the reply, “very much like it is now, except that you young fellows wear such beastly clothes.” Promoted Lieutenant in 1891, MacMunn veered away from the usual goal of ambitious gunner subalterns - an appointment in the R.H.A. - and put his name down for the native mountain artillery, being ‘agog to see the frontiers’. Being engaged to be married, he was anxious to secure the extra pay. He was duly appointed to No. 5 Bombay Mountain Battery, and hearing that they ‘bestrode chestnut Arabs and wore lion tamer boots’ provided himself with both. En route to join his new battery at Loralai he met at a rest-house in one of the passes a famous frontier character, Colonel