Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

General Service 1918-62, 2 clasps, Iraq, N.W. Persia (Rev. W. Vassall.) minor edge nicks, nearly extremely fine £240-280

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Awards to Chaplains formed by Philip Mussell.

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Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, April 2003.

William Vassall was educated at Keble College, Oxford and was ordained Deacon in 1910 and Priest the following year. He was Curate, firstly of St. Barnabus, Bethnal Green, 1910-15 and secondly of St. Andrew’s, Hillingdon, 1917-18. He served with the Y.M.C.A. in France 1917-18, prior to seeing service in Mesopotamia as a Temporary Chaplain to the Forces, 1918-22. Following this military service he held the post of Assistant to the Chaplain to St. Bartholomew the Less in London, 1922-23, he then held permission to officiate at the Church at Lancaster Gate, 1923-24. He was appointed Vicar of St. Peter’s, Stepney, 1924-26, then Vicar of Christ Church, Hendon, 1926-41. He was appointed Chaplain to the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve on 11 November 1941, and died at Dartford, Kent, on 11 December 1972.

His son, John Vassall, was the K.G.B. spy.