Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Family Group:

A Great War M.B.E. group of four awarded to Major R. B. Bristed, Royal Engineers
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, M.B.E., (Military) Member’s 1st type breast badge, silver, hallmarks for London 1919; 1914-15 Star (Capt. R. B. Bristed. R.E.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Major R. B. Bristed) extremely fine

Four: Captain G. T. Bristed, Royal Engineers
1914-15 Star (2. Lieut. G. T. Bristed. R.E.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Capt G. T. Bristed.); General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Iraq (Capt. G. T. Bristed.) good very fine (8) £300-£400

This lot is to be sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of Lieutenant-Colonel Edward De Santis.

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M.B.E. London Gazette 3 June 1919.
Richard Bower Bristed was born in Tower Hamlets, Middlesex on 8 July 1856 and was educated at Christ’s Hospital and King’s College, London. Over the coming years, in the lead up to the Great War, he was employed as a civil engineer in New Zealand, Nigeria, Argentina and Chile, largely in connection with railway construction projects By the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, Bristed was aged 57, but he offered his services to the War Office and was appointed a Captain in the Royal Engineers in August 1915. Having then joined 2nd Labour Battalion, R.E., in France in the same month, he saw action on the Somme in July-October 1916. He was subsequently appointed a Temporary Major and C.O. of the 701st Labour Company, R.E., in early 1918 and was also Mentioned in Despatches (London Gazette 21 May 1918, refers). Demobilised in November 1919, Bristed died in St. Leonards-by-the Sea, Sussex in October 1947.

Geoffrey Thornborrow Bristed, son of the above, was born in Wellington, New Zealand, where his father was employed as a civil engineer. Educated at Clifton College, he was an apprentice engineer in South America in his gap year, prior to going up to King’s College, Cambridge. Having then joined the Special Reserve in October 1913, when he was appointed a Trooper in King Edward’s Horse, Bristed was commissioned in November 1914 and transferred to the Royal Engineers in August 1915. Posted to 3 Field Company, R.E. in France towards the end of the year, he saw action on the Somme in the summer of 1916, and beyond. Demobilised in October 1919, he re-applied for a new posting in Mesopotamia and was embarked for Basra, Iraq in April 1920, where he remained actively employed until returning home in early 1922. Bristed died in Las Palmas in the Canary Islands in November 1969.