Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare colonial service group of six awarded to Captain W. H. E. “Freezer” Frost, Tientsin British Municipal Emergency Corps, late British Army

1914-15 Star (Sgt. W. H. E. Frost); British War and Victory Medals (Sgt. W. H. E. Frost), these three with impressed naming in small capitals; Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937, in its card box of issue; Tientsin British Municipal Emergency Corps Long Service, with Bars for ‘17 Years’ and ‘21 Years’, the reverse engraved, ‘12 May 1937, For Long Service, 17 Years’ (Corps Sgt. Maj. W. H. E. Frost), together with a set of related dress miniature medals, and some mounted tunic ribands, the Great War awards with contact wear and polished thus nearly very fine, the remainder very fine and better (12)
£350-400

William Henry Edwin “Freezer” Frost was born in Dublin in July 1893, the son of a Company Sergeant-Major in the Army Service Corps. He served in his father’s old corps in India during the Great War as a Corporal, his MIC entry revealing his sole entitlement to be the British War Medal, though this was returned as per King’s Regulations 1743 of 1912 (i.e. not claimed for 10 years), this probably because Frost had joined the Tientsin Volunteer Corps shortly after the War, afterwards re-titled in 1925 the Tientsin British Municipal Emergency Corps.

He subsequently served as a Sergeant-Major in the Guard of Honour at the funeral of Sir Lancelot Giles, C.M.G., our man in Tientsin, in December 1934, and a further glimpse of him at work, after being commissioned, may be found in The Ford of Heaven by Brian Power:

‘The late Queen Victoria’s birthday, May 24, was also Empire Day. Woodhead used to say with pride that it was celebrated more heartily in Tientsin than anywhere in England.

The day began with a church parade. The Consul-General in his cocked hat attended the service at All Saints and afterwards reviewed the troops. H.M.S. Hollyhock, dressed with flags, was open to the public.

In the afternoon the inter-schools sports meeting was held at the Min Yuan opposite our house. Mr. Peebles was chief referee, assisted by the umpire, Captain “Freezer” Frost, a short man with a large moustache waxed at the ends. After serving as a sergeant in the British Army in India, the Captain had found work as the secretary of the Tientsin Racecourse. He joined the Volunteer Corps and soon rose to his present rank.

Mr. Peebles admired the Captain’s efficiency. Wherever Mr. Peebles presided as chairman, be it at the St. Andrew’s Society or the Ice Skating Club, you could be sure to find Captain “Freezer” Frost, the perfect secretary, sitting at his side, armed with a battery of sharp pencils and plenty of paper ... ’

Frost, who was also employed as an accountant for the Kailan Mining Co., was among those interned by the Japanese in early 1943, and appears to have been held in Weihsien Internment Camp at Weifang City in the Shadong Province of China. Liberated in August 1945, he later settled in New Zealand, where he died at Wellington in September 1956, aged 63 years; sold with a copy of the aforementioned book and a file of research.