A Great War O.B.E. group of seven awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel W. G. P. Alpin, Indian Medical Service

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 1st type breast badge, silver-gilt; Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, undated reverse, 2 clasps, Suakin 1885, Tofrek (Surgn., Indian Med. Dept.); India General Service 1895-1902, 1 clasp, Relief of Chitral 1895 (Surgn. Captn., I.M.S.); 1914-15 Star (Lt. Col., I.M.S.); British War and Victory Medals (Lt. Col.); Khedive’s Star 1884-6, unnamed, mounted for wear, minor contact marks, very fine and better (7) £750-850

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Awards to the Medical Services from the Collection of the late Tony Sabell.

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O.B.E. London Gazette 30 January 1920.

William George Patrick Alpin was born on 15 September 1859, the son of William Thomas Alpin, Controller of Post Offices, India. He was educated at Oscott College, Sutton Coldfield and trained in Medicine at St. Thomas’s Hospital Medical School, London, qualifying with M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P. in 1881/82. His first appointments were as a House Surgeon at the Metropolitan Free Hospital and Demonstrator of Practical Surgery at St. Thomas’s. In 1884 he received the degree of M.D. from the University of Brussels. In April the same year he was appointed a Surgeon in the Bombay Medical Department and thence soon after as a Surgeon in the Bengal Medical Department. With the Indian Medical Department he served in the Sudan campaign and was the Medical Officer of the General Hospital at Suakin. Upon his return to India he was appointed a Civil Surgeon in the United Provinces and was Resident Surgeon to the Medical College Hospital. Alpin also served as a Resident Surgeon at the Eden Hospital for Women and Children at Calcutta. During the N.W. Frontier campaign he was appointed Medical Officer to the Ordnance Field Park. In 1896 he was advanced to Surgeon Major and thence to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1904. Prior to the Great War he retired from the I.M.S. and in 1912 was living in Theydon Bois, Essex. He was re-employed during W.W.1, firstly serving aboard the hospital ship Egypt, and then as Officer Commanding the Military Hospital at Brockenhurst, 1916-17; service in Egypt with the B.R.C.S. followed in 1917, after which he was Medical Officer to the Prince of Wales Hospital for Officers in London until 1919 when his war services were concluded. For these he was awarded the O.B.E. After the war he was sometime Honorary Medical Officer to the King Edward Memorial Hospital in Ealing. By 1927 he was living in retirement in Torquay. With some copied research.