Orders, Decorations and Medals

An important Great War D.S.O. group of six awarded to Brigadier-General H. R. Cumming, late Durham Light Infantry, killed in a Sinn Fein ambush during the Anglo-Irish War whilst Commanding the Kerry Brigade

Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R.; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 4 clasps, Tugela Heights, Relief of Ladysmith, Transvaal, Laing’s Nek (Capt., Durham Lt. Infy.); 1914-15 Star (Major); British War and Victory Medals (Brig. Gen.); France, Legion of Honour, Officer’s breast badge, silver-gilt and enamels, minor chipping to the last, otherwise good very fine or better (6) £900-1200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the collection of the late Mike Leahy.

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D.S.O. London Gazette 4 June 1917 (Lieut.-Colonel [Temporary Brigadier-General], Durham Light Infantry.
M.I.D. London Gazette 22 February and 10 September 1901; 15 May 1917; 20 December 1918.

Hanway Robert Cumming was born on 9 October 1867 and became 2nd Lieutenant, Durham Light Infantry, on 8 June 1889. He served in the Boer War and was present at the Relief of Ladysmith, including the action at Colenso; actions at Vaal Krantz, Pieter’s Hill, and Laing’s Nek (Despatches twice, Brevet of Major, medal with 4 clasps). During the Great War he commanded the 2nd Battalion, Durham Light Infantry, from August to November 1916, and also served on the Staff. He fought in Egypt from December 1915 to February 1916; France and Belgium from March 1916 to May 1917, and from March to Novemebr 1918 (Despatches twice, Brevet of Colonel, D.S.O., and Legion of Honour 4th class).

General Cumming was killed in the famous Sinn Fein ambush at Clonbanin, Co. Cork, which was carried out on the afternoon of 5th March 1921; Lieutenant Maligny, A.S.C., and two men were also killed, and one officer and five men wounded. Cumming, in a touring car, was in convoy accompanied by three Crossley tenders, containing an escort of the East Lancashire Regiment, together with a Rolls Royce Armoured Car, when it ran into a well planned ambush. The convoy was brought to a sudden halt by a hail of fire from a Hotchkiss gun and rifles.

‘The moans of wounded military were clearly audible above the din of battle. Soldiers taking cover by the roadside answered the shots directed at them from the north and south. A tall officer leapt from the touring car as it careered into the fence. In answer to an I.R.A. call to surrender, he defiantly replied: “Surrender to hell! Give them the lead,” as he dived for cover at the other side of the road. Those were the last words of Brigadier-General H. R. Cumming, D.S.O., for they had scarcely been uttered when he fell, shot through the brain by a bullet from an ambusher’s rifle. He was the first British General in Ireland to take civilian hostages on his lorries and his escort that day at Clonbanin carried a hostage who escaped during the fighting.’ Sold with further details.