Orders, Decorations and Medals

The MacGregor Memorial Medal awarded to Major M. C. Lake, 4/4th Bombay Grenadiers, for his valuable reconnaissances of unmapped areas of Arabia; he raised and commanded the Aden Protectorate Levies and was for a time Acting Governor of Aden

MacGregor Memorial Medal, obv. high relief bust, left, ‘Major General Sir Charles MacGregor, K.C.B., C.S.I., C.I.E., In Memoriam 1887’, rev. Indian troops (Awarded for 1927 to Major M. C. Lake, 4/4th Bombay Grenadiers, for Valuable Reconnaissances.), large type, 70mm., silver, minor scratches, good very fine, scarce £1800-2200

Morice Challoner Lake was born on 28 May 1885, the son of Mr H. J. Lake, a barrister-at-law. He was educated at Wellington College and Sandhurst. First commissioned in 1904, he joined the Indian Army in 1905, serving with the 24th Punjabis and then the 109th Infantry. He served in Aden with the latter regiment in 1913, serving in the Aden Field Force, 1915-16 and commanded the Aden (Arab) Labour Corps, 1917-18. He then raised and commanded the 1st Yemen Infantry, 1918-25. Having been appointed Advisor to the Colonial Office and Air Ministry on the raising of Arab Levies and initiation of an Intelligence Service, in 1928 he raised and commanded the Aden Protectorate Levies, of which he became honorary Colonel in 1933. Appointed a Political Officer in 1928, he was soon after advanced to Political Secretary. During periods in 1935 and 1936 he was Acting Resident, and for a time in 1937, he was Acting Governor of Aden. Lake joined the Royal Geographical Society in 1921. A keen and observant traveller, he kept a record of his recruiting journeys into the unmapped Arabian interior. In 1926 he visited San’a with Sir Gilbert Clayton’s Mission, visiting again in 1932 and in 1934 when the Treaty of San’a was ratified with the King of Yemen. He was awarded the MacGregor Memorial Medal of the United Service Institute of India in 1927. In 1933 he was awarded the Order of the Star of Ethiopia, following a visit to Aden and Somaliland by the Emperor of Ethiopia, and in 1936 he was awarded the C.M.G. He retired from Government service in Aden in 1940 but subsequently represented the British Council in Arabia and the Persian Gulf. Lieutenant-Colonel Lake died on 25 July 1943. Sold with copied obituary.

For further background history of the MacGregor Memorial Medal please refer to the previous lot.