Meritorious Service Medal Groups from the Collection of Ian McInnes

Seven: Captain A. A. Hodge, South African Forces, late Royal Army Ordnance Corps

1914 Star, with clasp; British War and Victory Medals; War Medal 1939-45 (P3544 A. A. Hodge); Africa Service medal, with Protea emblem (P3544 A. A. Hodge); Army L.S. & G.C. Medal, G.V.R.; Union of South Africa Meritorious Service Medal, G.VI.R., crowned head (P3544 W.O. 1, T.S.C.), the Great War trio and Army L.S. & G.C. with erased naming, the last officially corrected, very fine and better and extremely rare (7) £400-500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Meritorious Service Medal Groups from the Collection of Ian McInnes.

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Albert Ashby Hodge, who was born in South Africa in August 1880, joined the Army Ordnance Corps in 1907 as an Armament Staff Sergeant. Arriving in France in mid-August 1914, he was attached to 3rd Heavy Brigade, Royal Garrison Artillery until September 1916, afterwards returning to the U.K. where he was employed on A.A. defence duties in London. Hodge was temporarily attached to the South African Army Ordnance Corps in 1920 and was awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in 1926. Sometime, thereafter, he would appear to have settled in South Africa at Seapoint, Cape Town.

During the 1939-45 War Hodge served in the Technical Service Corps, based at Cape Town, initially as a Defence Armament Artificer (Warrant Officer Class 1), and latterly in the temporary rank of Captain with 1st Heavy Battery, S.A.A., and was awarded his M.S.M. in January 1941 - one of only 46 such awards ever awarded by the Union, just 10 of them as G.VI.R. crowned head issues. His Protea emblem (King’s Commendation) is also verified by South African records. Hodge was finally released from military service in October 1947, aged 67 years.