Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine Boer War D.S.O. group of five awarded to Major A. P. Frankland, 1st Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, later 2nd Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, attached Royal Flying Corps, who was twice Mentioned in Despatches

Distinguished Service Order, V.R., silver-gilt and enamel, lacking integral top riband bar; Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 4 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1901, date clasp a tailor’s copy (Capt. H. P. Frankland, D.S.O. Lanc. Fusrs.) engraved naming; 1914 Star, with copy clasp (Captain A. P. Frankland. D.S.O. Lan: Fus.); British War and Victory Medals (Major A. P. Frankland.) minor red enamel damage to DSO, generally very fine (5) £1,600-£2,000

D.S.O. London Gazette 25 July 1901:
‘In recognition of service during operations in South Africa.’

The original recommendation adds: ‘For conduct of a convoy near Petrusberg. His good disposition, pluck and coolness saved the convoy.’

Arthur Pelham Frankland was born in Dover on 23 December 1874, the second son of Colonel Sir William Adolphus Frankland, 9th Baronet, of Heath House, Shropshire. Educated at Oxford and Sandhurst, he was appointed from the Royal Military College to a commission in the Suffolk Regiment in the London Gazette of 27 September 1895, and was awarded the D.S.O. whilst serving with the 1st Battalion in South Africa. Transferred to the 2nd Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, he was slightly injured on 23 April 1901 at Roodeval; the casualty list published in The Globe on 27 April 1901 confirms the injury, adding: ‘by a fall from his horse.’

Raised Captain, Frankland returned home with his Regiment and was decorated with the D.S.O. by His Majesty King Edward VII at an investiture held at Buckingham Palace in July 1901. Transferred to the Army Reserve as Captain, he had another equine-associated accident in 1904 when a butcher’s cart ‘driven at a furious rate’ caused him to fall off his bicycle in Harpur-street, Bedford. The Bedfordshire Mercury noted: ‘the witness [Frankland] cut his knee rather badly and was severely shaken’. Recovered from his injuries, Frankland later took employment as a land agent in the Channel Islands and for Prince Blucher at Crowcombe Court, Somerset, before settling down at Thirkley House in Ascot.

Transferred to Army Reserve as Captain, Frankland was recalled to the Colours upon the outbreak of the Great War and served in France with the 2nd Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, from 19 September 1914. Raised Major, attached Royal Flying Corps (Anti-Aircraft Headquarters), he qualified 1st class interpreter in French and was employed in the formation of Group Headquarters at Birmingham from November to December 1917. Twice Mentioned in Despatches, he died in Hampshire in January 1948.