Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Lieutenant-Colonel A. L. Otway, Royal Army Medical Corps

1914 Star, with clasp (Capt., R.A.M.C.); British War and Victory Medals, small M.I.D. oak leaf emblem (Lt. Col.); Defence and War Medals, these unnamed, mounted as worn; together with a mounted set of five miniature dress medals, good very fine (10) £250-300

M.I.D. London Gazette 19 October 1914.

Alexander Loftus Otway was born in Waterford on 19 June 1880. Studying medicine at Trinity College Dublin and at London, he gained the M.B., B.Ch., B.A.O. and D.P.H. Entering the Army, he was commissioned a Lieutenant in the R.A.M.C. on 30 January 1904. He was promoted to Captain in July 1907. As such he served in India, 1905-10 and then with the B.E.F. in France and Flanders in the Great War, 14 August 1914-May 1915, being invalided and mentioned in despatches. He was promoted to Major in July 1915 and served with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, December 1917-October 1918. Otway was in command of 130 Field Ambulance from January 1918 and held the acting rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, January 1918-February 1919. After the war he served in India, 1919-22 and the Gold Coast, 1924-25. In July 1927 he was granted the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. With the onset of the Second World War, Lieutenant-Colonel Otway was appointed Commanding Officer of the Military Hospital Londonderry. With ‘Great War’ riband bar and some copied research. See lot 894 for another medal to the ‘Otway’ family.