Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A post-War ‘Civil Division’ O.B.E. group of six awarded to M. H. Webster, Secretary for Health, Rhodesia, late Colonel, Royal Army Medical Corps

Rhodesia, Independence Commemorative Medal (M. H. Webster); Great Britain, The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Civil) Officer’s 2nd type, breast badge; 1939-45 Star; Africa Star, 1 clasp, 8th Army; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, with M.I.D. oak leaf, mounted as originally worn, generally very fine (6) £200-£300

O.B.E. London Gazette 9 January 1960.

M.I.D. London Gazette 8 July 1941 (Middle East).

Maurice Holland Webster was born in Banff, Scotland in September 1914, and educated at Banff Academy and Aberdeen University. His obituary which appeared The Central African Journal of Medicine, September 1986, gives the following:

‘Maurice Holland Webster was known to me and his friends as Mark. Mark... graduated MB ChB in 1936. He worked as a Resident Medical Officer at the City Hospital, Aberdeen and while there he obtained his DPH. During the Second World War he served in Norway and the Middle East, reaching the rank of Colonel and Deputy Director of Hygiene.... On leaving the army he joined the health services of Southern Rhodesia and was posted to Bulawayo as the first Regional Medical Officer. Later he was awarded the OBE for his work as Chief Medical Officer on Site during the construction of the Kariba Dam.

Following the end of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland he was appointed Secretary of Health of this country. One of his impressive achievements was recruitment of staff to the Ministry of Health following the end of the Federation. It was also due to his determination that the Faculty of Medicine was established in the face of the Government’s desire to scrap the plan to save money. Like most people in this country, Mark suffered very close personal losses during the way... Two years before he retired, Mark started to study Law at the local university and graduated soon after he retired. He became a full-time lecturer in law at the University of Zimbabwe until he retired very recently. At the time of his death he was in part-time practice in medicine and a part-time lecturer in law....’

Webster’s post-war appointments were: Secretary for Health, Rhodesia; Regional Medical Officer of Health Bulawayo, 1946-55; Chief Medical Officer Federal Power Board, 1955-57; Director Medical Service Northern Rhodesia, 1957-63 and Brigadier Director General Rhodesian Armed Services Medical Services.

Sold with copied research, including a photographic image of recipient.