A good Second War M.B.E. group of nine awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel J. H. Busby, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, M.B.E. (Military) Member’s 2nd type breast badge, silver; General Service 1918-62, 2 clasps, Palestine, Malaya (Capt. J. H. Busby, Bedfs. & Herts. R.); 1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, these four privately engraved, ‘Maj. J. H. Busby’; Korea 1950-53 (Lt. Col. J. H. Busby, M.B.E., Bedfs. & Hert.); U.N. Korea 1950-54, privately engraved, ‘Lt. Col. J. H. Busby’; Coronation 1953, mounted court-style as worn, the second with officially corrected rank, initials and surname, generally good very fine (9) £800-£1,200

Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, September 2009.

M.B.E. London Gazette 1 January 1944.

John Henry Busby, who was born in May 1912, was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment in September 1932 and, as verified by contemporary Army Lists, served as an Acting Captain in Palestine pre-war. Appointed an Adjutant in July 1940, he was advanced to Acting Major that September but little more is currently known about his 1939-45 and Korea careers. He retired on 10 September 1955 and was granted the honorary rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.