Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A post-War O.B.E. group of three awarded to Major C. Holborow, Royal Army Medical Corps, who served as Chairman of the Commonwealth Society for the Deaf, and Master of the Tallow Chandlers Company in 1996-97

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Civil) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge, silver-gilt; Efficiency Decoration, E.II.R., T. & A.V.R., reverse officially dated 1969, with integral top riband bar; Gambia, Republic, Order of the Republic of Gambia, Officer’s breast badge, gilt and enamel, with miniature star emblem on riband; together with a National Service medal 1939-60; ands the related miniature awards, good very fine (4) £300-£400

O.B.E. London Gazette 17 June 1989: Christopher Adrian Holborow, T.D., Medical Adviser and Chairman, Commonwealth Society for the Deaf.

Christopher Adrian Holborow was born in Suffolk and was educated at Repton and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Training at Great Ormond Street, Addenbrooke’s, and Guy’s Hospitals, he subsequently did his National Service in the Royal Army Medical Corps, as an Ear, Nose, and Throat Surgeon in Germany. He continued his Army life in the Territorial Army and was Medical Officer of 296 (City of London) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery for over 20 years. It was the affiliation of this Regiment to the Tallow Chandlers Livery Company which saw him involved in this sphere, and he served as Master of the Company in 1996-97.

The cause of the deaf was always close to his heart, and he served as President of the South East Region of the Association of the Deaf, as well as Medical Adviser and Chairman of the Commonwealth Society for the Deaf, and it was for his work with the latter organisation that he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1989. He died in 1998.

Sold together with a framed display of cap badges and unit insignia of the various units in which the recipient served; a number of original letters and documents regarding his service with the Territorial Army; a signed copy of the book ‘The Tallow Chandlers Company, Seven Centuries of Light’, by Gordon Phillips; and copied research, including a photographic image of the recipient in later life.