Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War D.S.O. group of seven awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel F. A. Stephens, Royal Army Medical Corps, who was Mentioned in Despatches, and awarded the Serbian Order of St. Sava

Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel, with integral top riband bar; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal (Lieut: F. A .Stephens, R.A.M.C.) engraved naming; King’s South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (Lt. F. A. Stephens. R.A.M.C.) engraved naming; 1914-15 Star (Major F. A. Stephens. R.A.M.C.); British War and Victory Medals (Lt. Col. F. A. Stephens.) BWM officially re-impressed; Serbia, Kingdom, Order of St. Sava, Officer’s badge, silver-gilt and enamel, Bishop with red robes, mounted as worn, minor enamel damage to motto around central medallion on last, otherwise good very fine (7) £1,400-£1,800

D.S.O. London Gazette 18 February 1915:
‘For services in connection with operations in the Field.’

Serbian Order of St. Sava, Officer London Gazette 28 January 1918.

Frederick Archer Stephens was born on 5 January 1872 and was educated at Sherborne School, and King's College, London, for the medical profession. He was commissioned Lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps on 14 November 1900, and served in South Africa during the Boer War as a Civil Surgeon. He was present in operations in Cape Colony, south of Orange River, from July to 29 November 1900; operations in the Transvaal from December 1900 to 31 May 1902; and operations in Orange River Colony and Cape Colony from 30 November 1900 to May 1901. For his services he received the Queen's Medal with three clasps, and the King's Medal with two clasps.

Stephens was promoted Captain on 14 November 1903, and was a Territorial Adjutant from 15 June 1908 to 31 October 1911. He was promoted Major on 14 November 1912, and served during the Great War initially in Hospital Ships from 13 August 1914. For his services he was Mentioned in Despatches (London Gazette 17 February 1915) and created a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order. He afterwards served with the Serbian and British Armies in Macedonia, and was Acting Lieutenant-Colonel from September to December 1918, being awarded the Serbian Order of St. Sava.

Sold with the original Bestowal Document for the D.S.O., in OHMS envelope, together with a copy of the Statutes of the Order; the recipient’s Army Correspondence Book, principally used by the recipient as a diary, covering the period June 1916 to February 1918, together with various medical entries; and a large quantity of letters (many of them congratulating the recipient on the award of the D.S.O), postcards, and other ephemera.