Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War 1915 ‘Bellewaarde Ridge’ M.C. group of six awarded to Captain C. W. Brown, C.B.E., Royal Scots Fusiliers, latterly attached Egyptian Army, who served with distinction on the Western Front and later served with the Colonial Engineering Service

Military Cross, G.V.R., the reverse privately engraved ‘Capt. C. Wilson Brown. R.S.F. Bellewaarde Ridge, 16th. June 1915.’; 1914-15 Star (2. Lieut. C. W. Brown. R. Sc. Fus.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Capt. C. W. Brown.); Jubilee 1935, unnamed as issued; Coronation 1937, unnamed as issued, nearly extremely fine (6) £1,000-£1,400

M.C. London Gazette 14 January 1916.

M.I.D. London Gazette 1 January 1916.

Christopher Wilson Brown was born on 6 July 1891, the son of Samuel Brown of Dumfries. Educated at Dumfries Academy and the Royal Technical College, of which latter establishment he became Associate in 1911, Brown went on to take employment in Canada with the Civil Engineering works. Returned home to Scotland at the outbreak of hostilities, Brown was appointed to a commission in the Special Reserve, being posted to the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers soon thereafter. Sent to France on 5 December 1914, he arrived at a time when both sides had ‘dug in’ and trench warfare was in its infancy. Preparing for a harsh winter and mourning the loss of the original Expeditionary Force, the British army began to focus heavily upon localised operations seeking tactical advantages.

As the Germans succeeded in their efforts to drive the Allied forces from the high ground around Ypres, an assault on Bellewaarde Ridge offered the opportunity to recover some important ground and act as a diversion. Just after sunrise on 16 June 1915, two infantry brigades of the British 3rd Division leapt out of their shallow trenches and charged into No Man’s Land. The First Attack on Bellewaarde by author Michael R. B. McLaren takes up the story: ‘What followed, on a hot summer’s day, was a somewhat typical British disaster of the early fighting on the Western Front; almost 4,000 casualties were suffered for a very little territorial gain that saw German retention of the dominant ground.’

For the gallantry which he displayed that day, Brown was awarded the Military Cross. He was further Mentioned in Despatches on 1 January 1916, before witnessing further action during the Battle of the Somme; it is believed by the current vendor that he was wounded at around this time and evacuated to hospital in Eastbourne to recover. Returned to duty with the war Office in 1917, Brown was seconded for service with the Egyptian Army. Sent to the 9th Sudanese Battalion on 8 October 1917, he joined the trek to Darfur on 16 October 1917 and spent the next three years maintaining law and order in the region. Transferred to the Gold Coast, Brown became Deputy Director of Public Works in Sierra Leone in 1928, before serving ten years from 1938 as Director of Public Work in Palestine. Retired from the Colonial Service in 1948, he later published a book which examined The Water Supply of Kumasi, Ashanti, 1939. Brown was further decorated with an O.B.E. in 1934, and C.B.E. in 1942.

Sold with an exceptional hand-written diary detailing approximately three years of service in the Sudan from 1917 until 1920. Including some fine technical drawings, it focusses heavily upon his life at that time, including efforts to construct roads, houses and barracks, and recreational hunting trips, especially the pursuit of guinea fowl, waterbuck and gazelle in the local desert wadis. Approximately 194 x A5-sized pages, 20,000 words+.