Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Great War M.B.E. group of three awarded to Assistant Commissioner W. S. Woodcock, District Staff, Order of St. John of Jerusalem

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, M.B.E. (Civil) Member’s 1st type, breast badge, silver, hallmarks for London 1917; The Order of St John of Jerusalem, Officer’s breast badge, silver, heraldic beasts in angles; Service Medal of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, silver, with one Additional Award Bar (1727. Asst. Comr. W. S. Woodcock (District Staff) No.4 Dist 1920.) very fine and better (3) £160-£200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Norman Gooding Collection.

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M.B.E. London Gazette 7 June 1918:
‘William Stanley Woodcock. Acting Deputy Commissioner, St. John Ambulance Brigade, West Lancashire.’

The Lancashire Daily Post of 13 June 1918 adds a little more detail regarding the award:

‘Mr Woodcock, who is a solicitor, practising at Bamber Bridge, where he is clerk to the Urban Council, the Education Committee, and the local tribunal, has long interested himself in ambulance work, and when Dr. C. J. Trimble left to take charge of the hospital at Etaples that he was instrumental in raising funds for, he took up the duties of district secretary for No.4 district of the St John Ambulance Brigade, which embraces Lancashire, Cheshire, Westmorland, Cumberland and the Isle of Man. In that capacity he was a valuable agency in the recruiting of men for the R.A.M.C. under the voluntary system in the early days of the war, over 8,000 joining this branch of the service from the district under his campaign. His honour follows closely upon the heels of that accorded his father-in-law, Lieut. Col. Jelly, whose membership of the same order was announced yesterday.’