Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part II)

A C.M.G., C.I.E. group of eight to Lieutenant-Colonel H. C. Prescott, Inspector-General of the Iraq Police, late South Wales Borderers

The Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, C.M.G., Companion’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel; The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, C.I.E., Companion’s 2nd type breast badge, gold and enamel, lacks brooch bar; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 5 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 backstraps removed (Lieut., S. Wales Bord.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oakleaf (Major); General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Iraq (Major); Defence, unnamed; Iraq, Order of El Rafidain, 4th Class breast badge, silver-gilt and enamel, rosette on ribbon, last six mounted as worn, good very fine and better (8) £1000-1200

C.M.G. London Gazette 3 July 1926. ‘Major (local Lieutenant-Colonel), C.I.E., I.A., Inspector-General of Police, Iraq’.

C.I.E. London Gazette 5 March 1919. ‘Major, Indian Army (Deputy Civil Commissioner of Police)’.

M.I.D. London Gazette 21 February 1919, 5 June 1919.

Henry Cecil Prescott was born in 1882 and educated at Bedford Modern School. He initially served in the 3rd (Militia) Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers as a Second Lieutenant and thence as a Second Lieutenant in the South Wales Borderers serving in South Africa during 1901-02. In 1903 he transferred to the Indian Army and was in military employment during 1903-08. In January 1908 he was appointed Assistant Superintendent in the Burma Police and in December 1910 District Superintendent in charge of three districts. Reverting to military duties on the outbreak of war in 1914, he was employed in recruiting. Promoted Major in the Indian Army in August 1916, he was for a time during 1917, second in command of the 67th Punjabis. In June 1917 he was appointed Deputy Commissioner of the Iraq Police at Basra and thence Baghdad and in the following year Commissioner. In 1920 (with local rank of Lieutenant-Colonel) he attained the rank of Inspector-General of the Iraq Police, in charge of the police force of the entire country, a post he was to retain until 1935. In a statement of service he later wrote, ‘If it had not been for the seizing of power by the opposition (many of the leaders of whom I had arrested and placed in prison for the safety of the country) I should have remained in command for some years longer’. Towards the end of his career in Iraq, he was awarded the Order of El Rafidain 2nd Class, having previously been awarded a lower class. In 1927 he was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel in the Indian Army but retired from the service in 1928. A keen polo player, he was in the championship team of Iraq for 1933, 1934 and 1935. Returning to England and seeking a Chief Constableship, he was appointed the Chief of Police for the Southern Railway, a post he continued to hold until 1947. Prescott eventually retired to St. Peter’s on Jersey where he died on 3 August 1960. Sold with copied research, including letters seeking employment after retiring as Inspector General of the Police in Iraq and a statement of his service up to that point.