Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Family group:

Pair: Captain S. C. Birch, Northumberland Fusiliers, late Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry

India General Service 1895-1902, 1 clasp, Punjab Frontier 1897-98 (Lieut., 1/D.C.L.I.); Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 4 clasps, Cape Colony, Defence of Ladysmith, Orange Free State, Transvaal (Capt., 1/North’d. Fus.), one or two edge bruises, otherwise generally good very fine

British War Medal 1914-20 (I. C. Birch, V.A.D.), good very fine (3) £500-600

Sydney Colvin Birch, who was born in August 1871, served for five years in the ranks of the Highland Light Infantry before being commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry in June 1895. He subsequently served in the Punjab Frontier operations of 1897-98, gaining advancement to Lieutenant in May 1898, and was the only officer in his Battalion to receive the above described Medal and clasp, together with 63 other ranks. Further active service followed in the Boer War, his “Defence of Ladysmith” clasp probably being unique on a Medal named to an officer of the Northumberland Fusiliers - he was, in fact, attached to the 2nd Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps in the siege - and did not transfer to the Fusiliers until May 1900, when he was advanced to Captain. Thereafter, he was employed as a Station Service Officer in the Transvaal, Cape Colony and the Orange Free State.

Birch was detached for service as Adjutant of the 1st Regiment of Royal Guernsey Militia 1901-04, when he was placed on half-pay, but in 1907-08 he again briefly served as an Adjutant in the Volunteers, shortly to be re-designated the Territorials. Re-employed by his old regiment, the Northumberland Fusiliers, in the Great War, he did not qualify for any further awards and died on 1 August 1917 (His MIC entry refers).

Ismay Colvin Birch entered the V.A.D. soon after the outbreak of hostilities in 1914, being assigned to Dorset/72 Detachment. Initially employed at the Crag Head V.A.D. Hospital in Bournemouth, she was transferred to the Connaught Military Hospital in Aldershot in May 1915 and to the Military Hospital, Malta that November, at which latter establishment she served until January 1917, and qualified for her single British War Medal entitlement. Her latter appointments back in the U.K. included Netley Military Hospital and she was discharged in November 1919.

Also see Lot 738 for further family Honours and Awards.