Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Second War ‘Civil Division’ M.B.E. group of four awarded to Lieutenant the Venerable F. McGowan, West Riding Regiment and Machine Gun Corps, later Archdeacon of Sarum

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, M.B.E. (Civil) Member’s 2nd type breast badge, silver; British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. F. Mc Gowan); Defence Medal; together with the related miniature awards, these mounted as worn; and the recipient’s Silver War Badge, the reverse officially numbered ‘366001’, good very fine (4) £160-£200

M.B.E. (Civil) London Gazette 3 January 1945: The Reverend Canon Frank McGowan, Honorary Secretary, Church of England Board for the Welfare of Imperial Forces within the Diocese of Salisbury.

Frank McGowan was born in Bournemouth around 1896, and was appointed to a commission in the 11th Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s Regiment (West Riding) on 23 July 1915. Transferred to the Machine Gun Corps, he suffered a gunshot wound to the front of his foot and was evacuated to hospital on 2 November 1917 for treatment, being awarded the Silver War Badge on 27 September 1918.

Post-War, McGowan read Theology at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, and was ordained Deacon in 1922, and Priest in 1923. He served as Curate of St. Michael’s, Bournemouth, from 1922 until 1925; Vicar of St. Mark’s, Birmingham from 1925 until 1929; and Rector of Cholderton from 1929 until 1944. Appointed a Canon of Salisbury Cathedral in 1944, he was appointed Archdeacon of Sarem in 1951 and Chaplain to the Bishop of Salisbury in 1954. He died in 1968.