Orders, Decorations and Medals

Major J. T. Carpenter-Garnier, M.C., The Scots Guards

A Sterling silver ornately decorated teapot, baluster shape,  7" in height, 9" in width overall, approx. 22 ounces. Maker's mark for James Howden & Son, hall marks for Edinburgh 1855 (all clearly stamped under the base). Excellent condition.

Finely engraved on one side with the Scots Guards regimental device and on the other side, within a cartouche, ‘Presented to Sergeant Major Superintending Clerk D Kinlay. On his selection for promotion to commissioned rank. Major & Regtl Adj J T Carpenter-Garnier, April 1909’ £400-600

Apart from its appeal as an example of early Victorian silver from the workshops of a well-known Scottish silversmith, the engraved wording is unique to the Brigade of Guards. Only the Guards refer to the senior N.C.O. in charge of the Regimental Orderly Room as the "Superintending Clerk", and the Major appointed to regulate all the battalions within his regiment is the "Regimental Adjutant". The adjutant of each individual battalion is a Captain.

The 1st Battalion, Scots Guards, arrived in France on 14 August 1914. Their first battle was the Aisne. On the second day, Major Carpenter-Garnier was struck in the head by a shell splinter and died within a few hours. Less than a year later (after Loos), of the twenty-eight officers who had embarked at Southampton in August, Lieutenant Quartermaster Kinlay was the only one who had not been killed, posted away, or invalided. At the Armistice, he was still at his post. His four years and three months of service at the front were rewarded with the Military Cross.

The story is told and illustrated on pages 199-200 of Military and Naval Silver - Treasures of the Mess and Wardroom (Roger Perkins, 1999).