The AA Upfill-Brown Collection

The important D.S.O. group of thirteen to Colonel B. H. S. Romilly, Scots Guards and Egyptian Army Camel Corps, brother-in-law to Winston Churchill

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE ORDER, V. R., with top suspender buckle; QUEEN'S SOUTH AFRICA 1899-1902, 5 clasps, Cape Colony, Driefontein, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, Belfast (Lieut., Scots Gds.); KING'S SOUTH AFRICA, 2 clasps (Lieut., Scots Gds.); 1914-15 STAR (Major); BRITISH WAR and VICTORY MEDALS, M.I.D. (Lt. Col.); JUBILEE 1935; CORONATION 1937; Egypt, ORDER OF THE NILE, 3rd class neck badge; Turkey, ORDER OF OSMANIEH, 4th class breast badge; Egypt, ORDER OF ISMAIL, 4th class breast badge in silver, gold and enamels; KHEDIVE'S SUDAN 1896-1908, 2 clasps, Talodi, Nyima, unnamed as issued; KHEDIVE'S SUDAN 1910-21, 2 clasps, S. Kordofan 1910, Mandal, unnamed as issued, the group mounted for display, very fine or better (13)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The AA Upfill-Brown Collection.

View
Collection

Sold with Colonel Romilly's photograph album relating to the Mandal campaign 1914, showing native villages being fired, troops advancing through the bush and the attack on Jebel Adlan.

Bertram Henry Samuel Romilly was born 6 November 1878 and entered the Scots Guards in 1898. He served in the Boer War with the mounted infantry and was twice mentioned in despatches, and awarded the D.S.O., London Gazette, 31 October 1902. According to the regimental history this award was made for the action of 4th February 1902 when he led a charge against the Boers who were attacking Colonel Crabbe's column. From 1903to 1906 he was attached to the Egyptian Army Camel Corps and was one of only 8 British officers who took part in the Talodi operations in June 1905. After a brief interval as Adjutant of the Scots Guards he again served with the Egyptian Camel Corps in the punitive expedition in the Nyima Hills in November1908. In November and December, 1910, he took part in the operations in Southern Kordofan, before once again serving a stint as Adjutant of the Scots Guards in London. He returned to the Sudan in 1912 and in March 1914 commanded the Mandal expedition against the Nubas. Romilly was twice wounded during the Great War, firstly at Neuve Chapelle, 10 March 1915, and secondly during the 3rd battle of Ypres, 29 July 1917, very badly in the head. He commanded the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards for a brief period before receiving this wound, and was mentioned in despatches, London Gazette, 22 June 1916. After the War he became Military Governor of Galilee, 1919- 20; Lieutenant-Colonel commanding 2nd Battalion Scots Guards, 1920-24; Chief Instructor at the Cairo Military School, 1925-28, and A. D. C. to H. H. the Khedive of Egypt. He married, in 1915, Nellie Hozier, daughter of Colonel Sir H. M. Hozier, and younger sister of Clementine Churchill. (See lots 198 and 375) The combination of clasps on the two Khedive's Sudan medals is unique to a British officer.