Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Seven: Lieutenant-Colonel W. E. Longfield, Royal Engineers and Egyptian Army, who served as Chief Railway Engineer, Alexandria, and Deputy General Manager, Sudan Railways, and was instrumental in the surveying, construction, and supervision of the Suakin-Berbewr-Atbara Railway; thrice honoured by the Egyptian government, he was also three times Mentioned in Despatches

1914-15 Star (Capt: W. E. Longfield. R.E.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Lt. Col. W. E. Longfield.) all with crushed named lids of card boxes of issue; Special Constabulary Long Service Medal, G.V.R., 2nd issue (William E. Longfield) with crushed lid of named card box of issue, this additionally named ‘Glos’; Ottoman Empire, Order of Osmanieh, Third Class neck badge, silver, silver-gilt, and enamel, Star and Crescent suspension detached but present, with short section of riband for display purposes; Order of the Medjidieh, Third Class neck badge, silver-gilt, gold appliqué, and enamel, silver mark to reverse, with short section of riband for display purposes; Egypt, Kingdom, Order of the Nile, Third Class neck badge, silver, silver-gilt and enamel, lacking reverse central backplate, with short section of riband for display purposes, minor green enamel damage to Osmanieh, otherwise good very fine (7) £1,200-£1,600

Order of Medijieh London Gazette 27 April 1906.

Order of Osmanieh awarded 1912.

Order of the Nile London Gazette 1 August 1922.

William Elrington Longfield was born on 4 June 1874, the sixth son of the Reverend Richard Longfield, of Curraglass, Co. Cork, and was educated at Clifton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, passing out third in his class. He was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 25 July 1893, and was promoted Lieutenant on 25 July 1896. Attached to the Egyptian Army from December 1899, in 1901 and 1902 he conducted a difficult and complicated survey for the proposed Suakin-Berber-Atbara railway line; as a result of the survey’s success, the project proceeded with Longfield being substantially involved in the construction and supervision of the line. Promoted Captain on 1 April 1904, he was appointed to the Order of the Medjidieh in 1906, and was appointed Deputy General Manager of the Sudan Railways. He transferred to the Retired List on 2 December 1909 in order to become Assistant Director of Works in the civil employment of the Sudan Government, and in 1912 was appointed to the Order of Osmanieh.

Recalled upon the outbreak of the Great War, Longfield served as Chief Railway Engineer, Alexandria, as part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, and was promoted Major in 1916. For his services during the Great War he was three times Mentioned in Despatches (London Gazettes 6 July 1917; 16 January 1918; and 5 June 1919).

Following the cessation of hostilities Longfield reverted to the post of Deputy Manager of the Sudan Railways, and was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel in 1920. He retired in 1922, being awarded the Egyptian Order of the Nile on his retirement. Settling in Gloucestershire, he served in the Special Constabulary, was appointed a Justice of the Peace, and wrote a history of the Sudan Railways (published in 1936); he is also mentioned several times in The Royal Engineers in Egypt and the Sudan by E. W. C. Sandes. He died on 17 October 1942.

Sold with a French Railways silver Presentation Plaque, the reverse engraved ‘Le President Stephane Derville au Captaine Longfield en Souvenir du Voyage au Soudan Janvier 1908’, in red leather case, the lid embossed ‘Captaine Longfield’; an original officer’s bronze Royal Engineers cap badge; the crushed named lid of the card box of issue for the recipient’s wife’s Great War medals ‘M. Longfield, B.R.C.S. & O.S.J.J.’; various photographic images of the recipient; and extensive copied research.