A Great War D.S.O. group of five awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel G. C. Tracy, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry

Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel, with integral top riband bar; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, no clasp, naming erased, and suspension claw re-affixed; 1914-15 Star, unnamed (not erased); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Lt. Col. G. C. Tracy.) edge bruising and contact marks to the QSA, this good fine; the rest good very fine (5) £1,000-£1,400

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to the 46th Foot and its Successor Units.

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D.S.O. London Gazette 3 June 1918.

M.I.D. London Gazette 4 January 1917 and 25 April 1918.

George Courtenay Tracy (also recorded as Tracey) was born in Mayfair, London, on 27 September 1876 and was educated at Radley College and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He was commissioned Second Lieutenant from the Royal Anglesey Engineers Militia into the West India Regiment on 4 March 1899; was promoted Lieutenant on 25 July 1900; and served with the 3rd Battalion during the Boer War in St. Helena. His medal was posted to him in the Gambia, where he is mentioned in the diary of J. E. Dutton entitled Journey with Lieutenant Tracy.

Tracy transferred to the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry on 22 February 1908, and was promoted Captain on 31 December of that year. He served with the 2nd Battalion and on the Staff during the Great War from July 1915, and was wounded by gun shot to the face on 6 August 1915, spending a week in Queen Alexandra’s Military Hospital at Mill Bank. Promoted Major on 1 September 1915, he was latterly promoted Lieutenant-Colonel, Special List, whilst serving as Commandant, School of Instruction, and for his services during the Great War he was twice Mentioned in Despatches and awarded the Distinguished Service Order. He subsequently served with the 1st Battalion in Ireland, before retiring on 5 May 1920. Emigrating to the United States of America in November 1938, he died in Santa Barbara County, California, on 20 October 1951.

Sold with copied research.