Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A most unusual M.V.O. group of eleven awarded to Captain B. S. Green, Director of Music and Bandmaster of the Royal Marine Artillery Band, the official Band of the Royal Yacht

The Royal Victorian Order, M.V.O., Member’s 5th Class breast badge, the reverse officially numbered ‘375’; Coronation 1902, bronze; Coronation 1911; Royal Victorian Medal, V.R., silver; British War and Victory Medals (Capt. B. S. Green R.M.A.) the Victory Medal officially re-impressed’; Denmark, Kingdom, Order of the Dannebrog, Christian IX, breast badge, gold and enamels; Norway, Kingdom, Coronation of King Haakon VII 1906; Portugal, Kingdom, Order of Villa Vicosa, breast badge by Da Costa, Lisbon, silver-gilt and enamels; Greece, Kingdom, Order of the Redeemer, Fifth class breast badge, silver and enamels, points of cross chipped and bruised; Germany, Prussia, Medal of the Order of the Red Eagle, silver, mounted as worn from two bars with provision for Russian Medal of St Anne, the Redeemer riband frayed and detached from the bar, generally nearly very fine (11) £800-£1,000

M.V.O. (5th Class) awarded 4 February 1912: Benjamin Stephens Green, Bandmaster, Royal Marine Artillery: Their Majesties visit to India.

R.V.M. (Silver) awarded February 1901: Benjamin Stephens Green, Bandmaster, Royal Marine Artillery: Funeral of Her Majesty Queen Victoria.

‘Benjamin Stephens Green has received the Victorian and Coronation Medals, and a gold-mounted baton from his late Majesty King Edward VII; the Royal Order of the Dannebrog from the late King Christian of Denmark; the medal of the Royal Order of the Red Eagle for services during the visit of King Edward VII to Kiel, in 1904; the Coronation Medal from the King of Norway; the 3rd Class of the Chevalier of the Royal Military Order of Our Lady of the Conception of Villa Vicosa from His late Majesty King Carlos of Portugal; Coronation Medal, King George V; the Gold Medal of the Order of St Anne from the Czar of Russia; and the Order of the Redeemer of Greece from the King of the Hellenes, with a number of valuable personal presents from Royalties; promoted to Second Lieutenant 13th September 1911; Bandmaster of “Medina” during voyage of the King and Queen to India, November 1911 to February 1912; M.V.O., 5th Class, 4th February 1912; Director of Music with honorary rank of Lieutenant, 14th May 1914.’ (Naval Who’s Who 1917 refers).

Benjamin Stephens Green entered the Army as a Private on 14 October 1865. He was promoted to Warrant Officer on 1 July 1881, and transferred to the Royal Marine Artillery Band on 11 February 1897, as Bandmaster. The Band, under Green, played at many prominent occasions including the funeral of Queen Victoria, the Coronation of King Edward VII, and the Royal tour to India in 1911-12. King Edward VII gave the Band the honour of becoming the official Band of the Royal Yacht. The Band visited the Western Front on several occasions during the Great War. Green was granted the honorary rank of Captain R.M.A. on 4 March 1918, and retired the following year after fifty-seven years service in military bands.