Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An interesting C.B. group of eight awarded to Colonel Percy Holland, 47th Sikhs, late Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, C.B. (Military) Companion’s breast badge, silver-gilt and enamels, complete with narrow swivel-ring suspension and riband buckle, central devices lacking from obverse; Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, 1 clasp, Tel-El-Kebir (Lieut.: P. Holland. 2/D of C.L.I.);, India General Service 1854-94, 2 clasps, Burma 1885-87, Burma 1887-89 (Lieut. P. Holland 5th Bo: Infy.); India General Service 1895-1902, 2 clasps, Punjab Frontier 1897-98, Samana 1897 (Captn. P. Holland, 5th Pjb. Infy.); China 1900, no clasp (Major P. Holland 47th Sikhs); British War and Victory Medals (Brig, Gen. P. Holland.) officially impressed later issues; Khedive's Star 1882, unnamed as issued, light contact marks, otherwise nearly very fine or better (8) £2,000-£2,400

Percy Holland was born at Petworth, Sussex, on 20 February 1862, son of Prebendary Charles Holland, Rector of Petworth. He was educated at Charterhouse and in Germany. He was appointed Second Lieutenant in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry on 22 October 1881, and served with the regiment in the Egyptian campaign of 1882, being present in the actions of El Magfur, Tel-el-Mahuta, both actions at Kassassin, and the battle of Tel-el-Kebir (Medal with clasp; bronze star).

Holland was appointed to the Bombay Staff Corps as a Lieutenant in May 1883, and was initially posted to the 9th Native Infantry before transferring to the 5th Punjab Infantry as Wing Officer and Quartermaster in August 1884. He served in the Burma campaigns of 1885-89 (twice mentioned in despatches; medal with two clasps) and in the 1st Miranzi expedition of 1891. He was promoted Staff Captain in the Intelligence Branch of the Quarter-Master General’s Department in April 1890, and was an Extra A.D.C. on the personal staff of Lord Roberts in the same year. Appointed Wing Commander in the 5th Punjabis in June 1897 he served on the North West Frontier in the operations of 1897-98, including operations on the Samana Ridge and in the Kurram Valley during August and September 1897; and in the operations of the Flying Column in the Kurram Valley under Colonel Richardson, August to October 1897 (Medal with two clasps). Holland’s War services list South Africa 1899-1900 but the nature of his employment in not known and no medal was awarded. He transferred to the 4th Punjabis in December 1899 and served with them in China in 1900 as second in command and Wing Commander (Medal). He transferred to the 47th Sikhs in January 1901 as second in command and Double Company Commander, being promoted Major in July 1901. He was attached to the 35th Sikhs from May 1902 as Officiating Commandant, and in March 1903 was appointed Commandant of the 47th Sikhs, which command he held until March 1910 when he ceased to be employed. Promoted to Colonel in the Army in January 1911, he was awarded the C.B. on 3 June 1913, and retired on 22 October 1913, residing out of India.

Holland was appointed Brigadier-General in command of the 117th Brigade of the 39th Division in July 1915. After raising and training the Brigade, he took it to France on 6 March 1916, and served with them until replaced, under the age rule, on 15 April 1916. On 21 August 1917, he was gazetted to a Special Appointment on the Staff, to be paid as a Staff Captain - rather an unusual rank for a Colonel and Brigadier-General. The end of Holland’s career seems to have been quite dramatic. He last appears in the Army List in April 1918, but the List of July 1918 states: ‘Removed from the Army, the King having no further occasion for Services as an Officer’ [to date from 3 May 1918]. In a further indignity, Holland was stripped of his C.B. and his name erased from the Register of the Order (London Gazette 28 May 1918), the gazette notice stating:

‘Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood... 24th May 1918.
The King, as Sovereign of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath has been pleased to command and declare that Percy Holland, a Companion of the said Order and lately a Colonel in the Indian Army, retired pay, shall from this day be removed from the said Order, he being unworthy any longer to remain a member thereof.’

It has not been possible to uncover the reasons behind Percy Holland’s fall from grace but it was certainly both sudden and complete. Colonel Percy Holland died at Collier Street, Kent, on 18 September 1931, and was interred at Lynchmere Church, near Haslemere, Surrey, in the same tomb as his father and mother.

Sold with comprehensive research including copied medal index card which confirms that his British War and Victory Medals were claimed by his widow and issued in January 1933. There are portraits of Holland in an album of photographs of the 47th Sikhs in the National Army Museum.