Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The British Red Cross Society and Order of St. John of Jerusalem War Service Certificate awarded to the Rt. Hon. The Viscount Dawson of Penn, Physician-in-Ordinary to H.M. King George V.

Joint Committee of the British Red Cross Society and Order of St. John of Jerusalem in England Certificate in recognition of valuable services rendered during the War 1914-19, named to ‘Bertram [sic] Dawson Esq., K.C.V.O., C.B., F.R.C.P.’, good condition £80-£100

Bertrand Edward Dawson, 1st Viscount Dawson of Penn, G.C.V.O., K.C.M.G., was sometime President of the Royal College of Physicians and served as Physician-in-Ordinary to H.M. King George V. As a prominent member of the House of Lords he strongly opposed measures to legalise euthanasia on the grounds that ‘it belongs to the wisdom and conscience of the medical profession and not to the realm of law’. It was Dawson himself who gave King George V the lethal injection of cocaine and morphine as he lay dying, so as to hasten his demise and ensure that the news of the king’s death should first be announced in The Times.