Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Six: Colonel E. Roseveare, Devonshire Regiment, who served with the St John Ambulance Brigade during the South Africa War 1899-1900

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 4 copy clasps, Cape Colony, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, Wittebergen (191 Sply: Ofcr. E. Roseveare. St. John Amb: Bde:); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Capt. E. Roseveare.); Territorial Force War Medal 1914-19 (Capt. E. Roseveare. Devon. R.); Defence Medal; Territorial Decoration G.V.R., silver and silver-gilt, hallmarks for London 1919, with integral top riband bar, mounted court-style as worn; together with a Devonshire Regiment Old Comrades label badge and an ARP silver label badge, edge bruise to QSA, light contact marks, generally very fine and better (6) £500-£700

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

View
Collection

Glendining’s, March 1994.

M.I.D. London Gazette 18 May 1918:
‘For operations against the Mahsuds, March-August 1917’

Edwin Roseveare was born in Plymouth in 1873 and was educated at Queen’s College, Taunton. As a Sergeant in the Newton Abbot Division St. John Ambulance Brigade, attached 20th Field Hospital Royal Army Medical Corps, he volunteered for service in South Africa and served as a Supply Officer in 1900. Commissioned Second Lieutenant in the 2nd (Prince of Wales’s) Volunteer Battalion, Devonshire Regiment on 29 January 1902, he was appointed Captain of the 5th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment on the formation of the Territorial Army on 1 April 1908.

Embodied for Great War service with the 5th Battalion, Roseveare embarked for India on the Staff of Wessex Division and was appointed Railway Transport Officer at Lahore on 14 February 1916. Appointed Assistant Director Railway Transport, Waziristan Field Force, on 13 June 1917, for his valuable services rendered in Waziristan and on the North West Frontier he was Mentioned in Despatches. Awarded the Territorial Decoration the following year (London Gazette 15 July 1919), he was disembodied in London on 13 April 1920 and was restored to the establishment of the 5th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment.

Appointed Lieutenant Colonel in command of the 5th Battalion on 1 September 1921, Roseveare relinquished command on 1 September 1925 and was promoted Brevet Colonel on transfer to the Reserve of Officers. During the Second World War he was appointed Divisional Warden ARP, Division 4, Millbay, Plymouth, serving in the heart of Plymouth Docks during the blitz. Subsequently President of the 5th Devons Old Comrades Association, he died at Plymouth on 30 May 1957, aged 84.

Sold with a two handled silver presentation cup (100mm diameter x 90mm height), engraved ‘5th (P.O.W.) Devon Regt. Rifle Club Officers Cup 1911 Won By Capt. E. Roseveare’; and copied service records and other research.