Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An impressive inter-war C.I.E., Great War Balkans operations D.S.O., O.B.E. group of fourteen awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel L. H. Kirkness, a senior officer of the Indian Railways, late Auxiliary Forces of India and a volunteer Motor Cyclist

The Order of the Indian Empire, C.I.E., 3rd type neck badge, gold and enamels, in its Garrard & Co. case of issue; Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamels; The Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) 1st type breast badge, hallmarked London 1919; 1914-15 Star (Sergt., M. Motor Cyclist); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Lt. Col.); Defence and War Medals, both privately inscribed, ‘Lt. Col. L. H. Kirkness’; Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937, privately inscribed, ‘L. H. Kirkness’; Indian Volunteer Forces Officer’s Decoration, G.V.R., the reverse officially engraved, ‘Capt. L. H. Kirkness, 2/Bn. M. & S.M. Rly. Rfls. A.F.I.’; Serbian Order of the White Eagle, 4th class breast badge, silver-gilt and enamel; another, 5th class, with swords, silver, gilt and enamel; Greek Medal for Military Merit (or War Cross) 1916-1917, 3rd class, with bronze wreath on riband, mounted as worn, one of the Serbian pieces lacking obverse centre surround and enamel work chipped in places, otherwise generally good very fine (14) £1400-1600

See Colour Plate XVI.

C.I.E. London Gazette 23 June 1936.

D.S.O. London Gazette 1 January 1918.

O.B.E. London Gazette 3 June 1919: ‘For valuable services rendered in connection with military operations in the Balkans.’

Serbian Order of the White Eagle (Military) London Gazette 15 February 1917.

Serbian Order of the White Eagle (Civil) London Gazette 15 October 1920.

Greek Medal for Military Merit (or War Cross) London Gazette 26 November 1919.

M.I.D. London Gazette 6 December 1916 (British Salonika Army)

Lewis Hawker Kirkness was born in 1881 and was educated at King’s College School and St. John’s College, Cambridge, where he was an exhibitioner and scholar. Entering the Madras Railway in 1904, he was appointed an Assistant Traffic Superintendent in the following year and a District Traffic Superintendent in 1909. His final pre-Great War post was as Secretary to the Agent of the Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway.

Already a member of the local Auxiliary Forces of India, Kirkness commenced his wartime career as a volunteer Motor Cyclist, but gained rapid advancement on the Special List to Acting Lieutenant-Colonel, in which capacity he served with distinction on the Balkans front employed on railway transport and railway operating troop duties. Awarded the D.S.O. and O.B.E., he was also mentioned in despatches and appointed to the Serbian Order of the White Eagle, in addition to gaining the Greek Medal for Military Merit (or War Cross).

Returning to his pre-war employ with the Madras and South Mahratta Railway at the end of hostilities, Kirkness was appointed a Deputy Transportation Superintendent in 1924 and Principal of the Railway Staff College at Dehra Dun in 1929. He latterly served as Secretary to the Railway Board of India between 1933-36, and was re-employed in the 1939-45 War at Movement Control at the War Office. Retiring to Liphook in Hampshire, the Colonel died in January 1950.