Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The impressive Great War O.B.E., M.C. group of ten awarded to Herwald Ramsbotham, 1st Viscount Soulbury, the Conservative politician and Government Minister who served as Governor-General of Ceylon 1949-54: his O.B.E. and M.C. were awarded in respect of his services in the Bedfordshire Regiment and on the Staff

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 1st type breast badge, silver-gilt, hallmarks for London 1919; Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed as issued; 1914-15 Star (Capt. H. Ramsbotham, Bedf. R.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Major H. Ramsbotham); Defence Medal; Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937; Coronation 1953; Ceylon, Armed Forces Inauguration Medal, E.II.R., mounted court-style as worn, together with a set of related miniature dress medals, including badges for St. Michael & St. George, the Royal Victorian Order and the Order of St. John, these too mounted court-style as worn, generally good very fine (23) £1800-2200

O.B.E. London Gazette 1 January 1919.

M.C. London Gazette 1 January 1917.

Herwald Ramsbotham, who was born in March 1887, was educated at Uppingham and University College, Oxford, following which he was called to the Bar in 1911.

Commissioned in the Bedfordshire Regiment on the outbreak of hostilities, he went to France as a Captain in the 7th Battalion in July 1915 but afterwards served on the Staff. In addition to his awards of the O.B.E. and M.C., he was thrice mentioned in despatches (London Gazettes 15 May and 11 December 1917, and 20 December 1918, refer).

Returning to his pre-war career in the legal profession, Ramsbotham entered the political arena in the late 1920s, when he was elected as a Tory M.P. for Lancaster, an office which he occupied until 1941. In 1931, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education by Ramsay MacDonald, a post which he retained when Stanley Baldwin became Prime Minister in June 1935. Shortly afterwards he became Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, but in September 1936 he was promoted to the office of Minister of Pensions by Baldwin. He continued to occupy this office when Neville Chamberlain became Prime Minister in May 1937, up until the summer of 1939 when he was appointed First Commissioner of Works. Finally, in April 1940, he entered the cabinet as President of the Board of Education, in which capacity he remained employed after Churchill became Prime Minister, up until July 1941, when he was replaced by R. A. Butler. He was raised to the peerage as Baron Soulbury of Buckinghamshire and subsequently served as Chairman of the Assistance Board until 1948, and was appointed G.C.M.G. in the following year.

Ramsbotham subsequently served as Governor-General of Ceylon 1949-54, services that were rewarded by his elevation to Viscount and appointment as G.C.V.O. He retired to Ovington, near Arlesford in Hampshire, and died in January 1971.