Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Inspector Sir Henry Pelham, K.C.B., Special Constabulary, who served as Permanent Secretary at the Board of Education 1931-37

Jubilee 1935, unnamed as issued; Coronation 1937, unnamed as issued; Special Constabulary Long Service Medal, G.V.R., 1st issue, 1 clasp, The Great War 1914-18 (Inspr. Henry Pelham) mounted as worn, good very fine (3) £100-£140

Sir (Edward) Henry Pelham was born in Oxford on 20 December 1876, the eldest son of Henry Francis Pelham, President of Trinity College, Oxford, and was educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford. He joined the Board of Education (the predecessor to today’s Department of Education) in 1901, and steadily advanced through the grades of the Civil Service, being appointed Principal Assistant Secretary in 1920, Deputy Secretary in 1929, ands Permanent Secretary in 1931. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1921 New Year’s Honours’ List, and was advanced to Knight Companion of the Bath in the 1933 New Year’s Honours’ List. He retired in 1937, and died in Oxford on 18 December 1949.