Auction: 11007 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals & Militaria
Lot: 447
The Rare China 1900 Defence of Legations Medal to Sir R.E. Bredon [K.C.M.G.], Deputy Inspector General of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service During the Boxer Rebellion, Late 97th Foot China 1900, one clasp, Defence of Legations (Dep: Insp: Genl: R.E. Bredon,), officially engraved, extremely fine, with the following documents and letters &c.: - Chancery Notification of the award of the C.M.G., dated 6.7.1903 - Grant of the Dignity of a C.M.G., named to Robert Edward Bredon, Esquire, dated 26.6.1903 - Chancery enclosure for the award of the C.M.G., dated 17.8.1903 - Chancery Notification of the award of the K.C.M.G., dated 23.6.1904 - Grant of the Dignity of a K.C.M.G., named to Robert Edward Bredon, Esquire, C.M.G., dated 24.6.1904 - Warrant dispensing with the Investiture of the K.C.M.G., named to Robert Edward Bredon, Esquire, C.M.G., dated 24.6.1904 - Chancery enclosure for the award and dispensation warrant of the K.C.M.G., dated 29.7.1904 - Letter to the recipient from the Foreign Office informing him that he is to be issued with a China Medal with clasp Defence of Legations, named to R.E. Bredon, Esq., and dated 31.12.1902 - Hand written enclosure sent with the medal, named to R.E. Bredon, Esq., and dated Peking, 12.3.1903 Estimate £ 5,000-7,000 Sir Robert Edward Bredon, K.C.M.G., was born at Portadown, Ireland, in February 1846, the son of Dr. Alexander Bredon, and was educated at the Royal School, Dungannon, and Trinity College, Dublin, where he read Mathematics and Classics. He passed out in First Place from Netley for the Army Medical Staff, 1867, and was appointed Assistant Surgeon to the 97th (Earl of Ulster´s) Regiment, April 1867; on retiring from the Army in 1873 he joined the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service, whose Inspector-General at the time was his brother-in-law, Sir Robert Hart. He was appointed Deputy Inspector-General of Customs in 1898, and was present at the Defence of Legations in Peking at the time of the Boxer Rebellion, 20th June to 14th August 1900. He was made a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in 1903 (London Gazette 26.6.1903), and the following year was advanced to a Knight Commander of the Order (London Gazette 24.6.1904). On the retirement of Hart in 1908, he was appointed Acting Inspector-General, and in 1910 he was appointed to the Chinese Board of Customs, but retired in deference to the wishes of the British Government. He died in July 1918. Sir Robert Bredon married Lily Virginia Banks in 1879, and they had one daughter, Juliet Bredon, the well-known author (See following Lot). Provenance: Spink, 20.11.2008
Sold for
£10,000