Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War D.S.O. group of five awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel J. E. Davey, Canadian Army Medical Corps

Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel, with integral top riband bar, obverse central medallion slightly depressed; 1914-15 Star (Lt: Col: J. E. Davey. Can: A.M.C.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Lt. Col. J. E. Davey.); Colonial Auxiliary Forces Officers’ Decoration, G.V.R., silver and silver-gilt (hallmarks for Birmingham 1921), the reverse officially impressed ‘Lt. Col. J. E. Davey. D.S.O. 19th. F.A. C.A.M.C.’, the last lacking integral top riband bar, generally good very fine (5) £1,000-£1,400

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

M.I.D. London Gazette 28 December 1917.

James Edgar Davey was born at Jerseyville, Ontario, on 15 May 1873, the son of the Reverend Robert Davey, a Methodist Minister. He was educated at the University of Toronto, and graduated as a Bachelor of Medicine in 1902. He was commissioned Lieutenant in the Canadian Militia on 19 April 1906, and serving in No. 12 Field Ambulance was promoted Captain on 1 April 1910. Advanced Major on 10 August 1911, he transferred to No. 19 Field Ambulance on that date as their Second-in-Command.

Following the outbreak of the Great War Davey enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force at Hamilton, Ontario, on 16 February 1915, and was appointed to the Canadian Army Medical Corps with the rank of Major. He was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel on 27 August 1915, and served during the Great War on the Western Front from 16 September 1915 to 16 November 1917, at Aire from February to August 1916, and at Remy Siding, Poperinghe, from August 1916 to November 1917. Returning to Canada in January 1918, he spent the remainder of the War as Officer Commanding the Military Hospital at Halifax, Nova Scotia, before being appointed to the command of the Brant Military Hospital, Burlington. For his services during the Great War on the Western Front he was awarded the D.S.O., and was also Mentioned in Despatches by Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig.

Following the cessation of hostilities, Davey transferred to the Reserve of Officers on 15 March 1919, before returning to the Active Militia on 30 October 1920, and was awarded his Colonial Auxiliary Forces Officers’ Decoration per General Order 34 on 1 March 1924. He retired on 1 September 1933, having reached the age limit, but volunteered for Service in the Second World War on 4 September 1939, although his offer was not taken up.

In civilian life Davey was employed first in Family Practice in Hamilton, Ontario, from 1904 to 1922, before being appointed Chief School Medical Officer in Hamilton in 1922, a post he held for 12 years until being appointed Assistant Medical Officer of Health, Hamilton, in 1934, being advanced Medical Officer of Health in 1940. He retired in 1946, aged 73. He was also an Alderman and President of various charitable bodies, and in 1962 was named Hamilton’s ‘Citizen of the Year.’ He died in Hamilton, Ontario, on 15 July 1969, aged 96.

Sold with extensive research, including the recipient’s photograph album; together with a service file for his daughter Dr Jean Flatt Davey, O.C., O.B.E., who was one of the first women recruited into the Canadian Forces, serving as a doctor in the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War with the rank of Squadron Leader.