Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Family group:

An O.B.E. attributed to C. MacDowall, Glasgow and South-Western Railway
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Civil) 1st type breast badge, silver-gilt, hallmarks for London 1919, unnamed, in Garrard, London case of issue

Pair: Lieutenant C. G. MacDowall, Royal Highlanders
British War and Victory Medals (Lieut.) extremely fine (3) £140-180

Charles MacDowall (1859-1948) awarded the O.B.E. in 1920 for his services as Railway Manager with the G.S.W.R. He and his wife Helen had two sons, Charles George and Edward Gillies.

Charles George MacDowall was born in 1890 and was educated at Hutcheson’s Grammar School. He graduated a M.A. from Glasgow University in 1913 and embarked on a B.Sc. degree in agriculture which he barely completed before joining the army in 1915, being commissioned into the Black Watch. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1917. In the autumn of 1918, when serving with the 8th Battalion, he was severely wounded, loosing a leg, in the 4th Battle of Ypres. Post-war he became a Chartered Accountant in Dingwall and Town Clerk at Fortrose, and in the two Royal Burghs of Dingwall and Fortrose he served as Provost. Very active in the field of local history, he published the book ‘The Chanonry of Ross’ in 1963. He died in Inverness in 1968.