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Auction: 13003 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals and Militaria
Lot: 5

The Great War 'Gallipoli' C.M.G. Group of Twelve to Lieutenant-Colonel H.F.N. Jourdain, Connaught Rangers, Who Raised and Commanded the 5th Battalion 1915-18, and was The Last Colonel of the 2nd Battalion of the Regiment Prior to Their Disbandment in 1922. Throughout His Life He Was a Noted Medal Collector and Later The Regimental Historian
a) The Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, Companion's (C.M.G.) breast Badge, subsequently converted for neck wear, silver-gilt and enamel
b) The Most Venerable Order of St. John, Officer's breast Badge, silver and enamel
c) Queen's South Africa 1899-1902, five clasps, Cape Colony, Tugela Heights, Orange Free State, Relief of Ladysmith, Transvaal, top lugs removed (Lieut. H.F.N. Jourdain, 1st Connaught Rang:)
d) King's South Africa 1901-02, two clasps, top lugs removed (Cpt. H.F.N. Jourdain. Con. Rang.)
e) 1914-15 Star (Lt. Col. H.F.N. Jourdain. Conn. Rang.)
f) British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. Oakleaves (Lt. Col. H.F.N. Jourdain.)
g) Order of the League of Mercy, Member's breast Badge, silver-gilt and enamel, with Second Award 'For Long Service' Bar
h) Yugoslavia, Kingdom, Cross of the Yugoslav Reconnaissance, silver and enamel, reverse engraved 'Lieut. Colonel H.F.N. Jourdain C.M.G.'
i) France, Republic, Institut Historique de France Great Gold Medal, neck Badge, silver-gilt and enamel
j) France, Republic, Order of the Academic Palms, Chevalier's breast Badge, silver and enamel
k) France, Republic, Medal of Haute-Silesie, bronze, lacquered, nearly extremely fine, mounted court style as worn, together with the following related items:
- The recipient's group of ten miniature awards, comprising a) to i) above, the C.M.G. badge in gold, with integral riband buckle, mounted court style as worn, together with a loose miniature of the French Order of the Academic Palms
- A signed copy of the recipient's memoirs, Ranging Memories, by Lieutenant-Colonel H.F.N. Jourdain, C.M.G., privately published, 1934
- The recipient's Association of Officers and Invalided Yugoslav Combatants of the Great War membership card
- Various photographs of the recipient, including one housed in a circular silver (Hallmarks for Birmingham 1907) photograph frame
- Various newspaper cuttings regarding the recipient's career and death
- Order of the League of Mercy, Member´s Badge, silver-gilt and enamel, attributed to Mrs. Jourdain, on Ladies bow riband (lot)

C.M.G. London Gazette 2.2.1916 Major (temporary Lieutenant-Colonel) Henry Francis Newdigate Jourdain, Connaught Rangers
'For services rendered in connection with military operations in the Field.'

M.I.D. London Gazette 28.1.1916 Major (temporary Lieutenant-Colonel) H.F.N. Jourdain, Connaught Rangers.

Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Francis Newdigate Jourdain, C.M.G., was born in March 1872, the fourth son of the Reverend F. Jourdain, Vicar of Ashbourne, and was educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Ashbourne; Derby School; and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Connaught Rangers, February 1893, and promoted Lieutenant the following August, and served with the Regiment through the whole of the Boer War, during which he computed that he marched 4,774 miles; was present at the battles of Spion Kop and Colenso, and the Relief of Ladysmith; and was promoted Captain, 21.8.1900. 'At the end of the War I had more service with the Battalion than any other officer, and had been out from the first. I had been specially recommended by Lord Kitchener in 1901 as "specially deserving for extra-regimental promotion". At the conclusion of the war I was put head of the list by my C.O. for a D.S.O. as a reward for continuous service throughout the war. I was finally selected to proceed home in charge of the Coronation Contingent. When we reached Southampton we heard of the serious operation on H.M. King Edward VII, and were sent away on six weeks' leave. The Coronation Medals, which had been marked for us, were handed out to others in August 1902.' (Ranging Memories, by the recipient refers).

Advanced Major, 10.4.1912, on the outbreak of the Great War Jourdain personally raised the 5th Battalion, Connaught Rangers, and went with them to Gallipoli in 1915: 'We left Plymouth for the Dardanelles on the 9th July 1915, in the 'Bornu', an old tub of a boat that finally sank in a storm off the coast of Portugal. After a very long voyage, in which the old tub only averaged 9 miles an hour, we reached Mudros on the 28th July, before re-embarking for Anzac Cove. Disembarking at 3:00am on the 6th August, it was a race to reach the shore before day broke, and when we got to the shore, the Naval Officers were most careful of our safety, almost hissing at us the disagreeable fact that so and so had been killed on that spot only a few hours before. In Gallipoli every minute might be your last. The 5th Battalion bore its first day of fire in Shrapnel Gulley very well, although countless bullets fell from beyond Lone Pine among us. Of cover we had none, nor could any be got anywhere; for the four days during which we supported the Australians behind Lone Pine we simply lay out in the open. But we managed to render some help to the gallant Australians. I had no sleep of any kind for three nights, and the days were too much occupied and were too hot for sleep or even food. But the men I had trained were grand, and the officers as well. There is no other name for what they did.' (ibid).

After Gallipoli, Jourdain served with his Battalion in Serbia and Salonika, as part of the Tenth Irish Division. After the retreat from Gallipoli, he served in France and Belgium, including the Battle of Messines Ridge and the third Battle of Ypres, and was awarded a C.M.G. Promoted substantive Lieutenant-Colonel, 19.1.1918, at the end of the War Jourdain was given the command of the 2nd Battalion. Affairs in Central Europe called him into action again in 1921, and he served with the Battalion during the incident in Upper Silesia. The Inter-Allied Commission of Control afterwards granted a medal for the operations, and both the Italian and French troops present accepted and wore the medal, but this was not allowed by the War Office for the British troops.

Disbandment
'On the 11th June, 1922, the Colours of the 2nd Battalion left Dover, and the 1st Battalion Colour party joined them at Shorncliffe, and after a night in Wellington Barracks all the Colour parties of the Southern Irish Regiments proceeded to Windsor and were received by His Majesty in St. George's Hall, where he graciously received the Colours of the five gallant Southern Irish Regiments which for centuries had done so much for the formation and consolidation of the British Empire. His Majesty talked to me for several minutes, telling me how much he deplored the need for disbanding his splendid Irish Regiments. He was visibly affected as he spoke. After the detachments had returned to their places, the Officers returned their swords, and one and all filed past His Majesty. And so, with the touching and mournful ceremony at Windsor, and the consequent dispersal to different Regiments, the Reserve, or to retired pay and pension, the disbandment became an accomplished fact. On the 31st July 1922 the Connaught Rangers officially ceased to exist.' (ibid).

Lieutenant-Colonel Jourdain retired from the Army two weeks later. Soon after he was approached by Michael Collins to become Director of Training of the Free State Army, but following Collins's murder the proposal fell through. In retirement he was devoted the rest of his life to assembling and producing historical records of former Connaught Rangers (many of whose medals he had in his collection). He was largely responsible for the history of the Regiment published in 1924, and was editor of the Regimental magazine, The Ranger, for over 40 years. For his long services to military history he was awarded the Great Gold Medal of the Institut Historique de France in 1934, and created a Chevalier of the French Order of the Academic Palms. Lieutenant-Colonel Jourdain, the Last Colonel of the Connaught Rangers, died in Oxford on the 29th January 1968.

A Regimental Collector
Throughout his life Lieutenant-Colonel Jourdain was a keen medal collector. In 1893, having been Commissioned into the Connaught Rangers as a Second Lieutenant, he made his first purchase, a Crimea pair to Private H. Sullivan, Connaught Rangers, who had served at the Battle of Inkermann. The following year he added four more medals to his collection- another Crimea, an Indian Mutiny, and a South Africa 1877-79 to both Battalions, the old 88th and 94th Foot. But it was in 1895 that the collection really took off, with the purchase of 14 medals. Early in that year he met up with the daughter of Surgeon Purdon, who had served with the 88th during the Napoleonic Wars, and from her purchased his first Military General Service Medal, for £6 10s., a large sum of money at the time. Also purchased that year were a nine clasp MGS to M. Travers, 88th Foot, for which he paid £11 8s, and a couple of Indian Mutiny medals, including one with the clasp Lucknow awarded to Ensign Lindsay, and unique to the 88th Foot. Over the next two years another forty-two medals were purchased, including his first gallantry award, a Crimea DCM group to M. Burke, 88th Foot- ultimately the collection ended up housing no fewer than eleven DCMs, including one for the First Boer War in 1881. In 1898 twenty six new medals were added to the collection, and, unusually for the time, Jourdain had managed to research the majority of the recipients- one Indian Mutiny recipient is noted as having two sons in the Regiment, one of whom was court-martialled and sentenced to six months for writing an anonymous letter to his Colonel (presumably the letter was not anonymous enough!) Four more MGS were bought that year, including a five clasp one to Thomas Holmes, and a nine clasp award to W. Cunningham, both 'bought by weight'.

In 1899 Jourdain left for South Africa, and no new medals were added to his collection until his return home in 1902, apart from, of course, the two medals which he himself was awarded. After the Boer War medals were added to the collection in quick succession- as if to make up for lost time 21 medals alone were bought in the second half of 1902. A fine Crimea officer's group, comprising a three clasp Crimea Medal, Legion of Honour, Order of Medjidieh, and Turkish Crimea Medal to Captain Beresford cost his £7 5s. As today, medals for the conflict just finished were over-priced, and a five clasp QSA set him back £3 5s, although before the year had ended he bought two more, each for £1 10s. He also added the Boer War DCM to W. Lennon, for £4 15s. In 1903 sixteen medals were bought, including two eleven-clasp MGS, one for £25 10s, the other a pound more expensive. Boer War Medals were still over-priced at this period, as a QSA and KSA pair were bought for £2 6s 6d. In 1906 he purchased the centrepiece of his collection, the Zulu War Victoria Cross pair to Private F. Fitzpatrick, 94th Foot, purchased at Sotheby's for £42.

For the rest of his life Lieutenant-Colonel Jourdain added to his collection, publishing two books along the way ('Some Regimental Medals of the 88th and 94th Regiments' in 1923, and 'Medals and Decorations of the Connaught Rangers' in 1933), and ultimately ended up with over 500 groups and singles, many of which were bought from Spink, all to his beloved Connaught Rangers.

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Sold for
£7,000