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Auction: 15003 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals and Militaria
Lot: 18

The Outstanding Campaign Group of Five to Brigadier-General D.J. Glasfurd, 12th Australian Infantry Brigade, Late Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, Who Was Twice Wounded During the Boer War, Mentioned in Despatches For His Services in Somaliland 1902-04, Distinguished Himself During the Landing at Anzac Cove and During the Evacuation From Gallipoli, And Died of Wounds on the Somme, 12.11.1916, Despite An Agonising 10 Hour Stretcher Journey To Carry Him From the Mud of the Front Line Through to an Advanced Dressing Station
Coronation 1911, engraved in running script 'Capt. D. Glasfurd, Arg & Suthd. Highlanders, Brigade Major, 24th Brigade'; Queen's South Africa 1899-1902, three clasps, Modder River, Paardeberg, Transvaal (Capt. & Adj. D.J. Glasfurd. A & S. Highrs.); Africa General Service 1902-56, E.VII.R., two clasps, Jubaland, Somaliland 1902-04 (Capt: D.J. Glasfurd, A & S. Hdrs:); 1914-15 Star (Major D.J. Glasfurd. 1 Div. H'Q A.I.F.); British War Medal (T-Brig-Gen. D.J. Glasfurd. A.I.F.), light contact marks, good very fine, first three mounted Cavalry Style (5)

Russian Order of St. Anne, 2nd Class, the Recommendation, dated 20.8.1916, states 'This officer has rendered most excellent service since assuming command of the 12th Aust. Infantry Brigade. In Egypt he did very valuable work in organising the defences of the Front Line at Serapeum. At Pozieres he held a long front with his Brigade, and inspite of the incessant shell fire organised and greatly strengthened the front line held by his troops.'

Brigadier-General Duncan John Glasfurd (1873-1916), was born in Matheran, India, the second son of Major-General C.L.R. Glasfurd, Bombay Staff Corps. He was raised at Altnaskiach, Inverness and educated in Edinburgh and at R.M.C. Sandhurst. Glasfurd was commissioned into the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in 1893. He served as Adjutant of the 1st Battalion in South Africa, and was wounded twice, slightly at Paardeberg 21.2.1900 and severely at Rustenburg on 26.10.1900. In 1901 he served in Jubaland against the Ogaden Somalis, and in Somaliland 1902-04, when he commanded the 4th Somaliland Camel Corps and was afterwards employed as a special service officer under the Director of Supply and Transport (M.I.D. London Gazette 2.9.1904). In June 1908 Glasfurd became staff captain for coast defences, Scottish Command, and that year was selected to attend the Staff College, Camberley, England. He graduated in 1909 and joined his regiment in Malta in May 1910. In November of the same year he was appointed brigade major to the Lothian Infantry Brigade. He was seconded, 24.6.1912, to the Australian Military Forces and appointed Director of Military Training at Army Headquarters with the temporary rank of Captain, A.M.F.

On the outbreak of the war Glasfurd accompanied the 1st Australian Division on the General Staff. He was present during the whole of the operations in Gallipoli, going ashore at 5.35am on the day of the landing. He distinguished himself by his work in establishing the firing line at Anzac, and through a number of other gallant actions as the following merit recommendations from his commanding officers show:

'Majors Villiers-Stuart and Major Glasfurd, during the landing on the 25th April, performed signal service in selecting forming up places and rendezvous, and aiding in the collection of units. During the day and night of both the 25th and 26th April, by their gallantry and devotion to duty, they greatly assisted, firstly, in guiding units into alloted positions and, subsequently, in re-adjusting the line held.'

'General good work as G.S.O.1 during the period from the date of my taking command of the Division until the evacuation. He was of the greatest assistance in the arrangements for the evacuation and it is due in a very large measure to his efforts that it was carried out so successfully. At his own request he stayed until the last and saw the whole Division clear. He served at Anzac throughout the entire period of our occupation and I strongly recommend him for advancement in the service.'

Glasfurd was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel, A.I.F., on 1 October 1915 and for outstanding service in the field was made Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army in January 1916 (M.I.D. London Gazette 5.8.1915 and 5.5.1916).

In February 1916 Glasfurd was given temporary command of the 12th Australian Infantry Brigade. The appointment was confirmed in March with promotion to Colonel and Temporary Brigadier-General, A.I.F. His brigade was sent to France in June and on 4th July moved into the Fleurbaix sector, where Glasfurd was slightly wounded three days later (M.I.D. London Gazette 13.7.1916)

Early in August the 12th Brigade went into action in the Somme sector, fighting at Pozières Heights and later at Vierstraat and Diependal. On 12th November 1916 it relieved the 2nd Brigade at Dernafay Wood. That morning Glasfurd was wounded by shell-fire in "Cheese Road" while reconnoitring the trenches. After an agonising ten hour stretcher journey in which relays of gallant stretcher bearers laboured strenuously to carry him through the mud from the front line to the advanced dressing station he died at the 38th Casualty Clearing Station at Heilly.

Glasfurd is mentioned extensively by Australia's official War Correspondent, C.E.W. Bean, in his diaries for Gallipoli. Bean also wrote the following Obituary for Glasfurd:

'Probably few men of even those who were there knew how much they owed to Major Glasfurd during the critical days of the landing at the Anzac. He was second General Staff Officer on the staff of the old 1st Australian Division, which was as brilliant as that of any British unit which ever went to war. But it is not the usual role of any staff to travel the firing line ceaselessly from end to end during battle, hopping over the scrub from one little rifle pit to another, to take new units up to it, lead old units forward, where they are too far back, and set them down nearer to the enemy, to rally retiring men and put them down on the line which they must hold. Glasfurd did not talk about the things he did; he simply did them because he saw that they had to be done, and he was there. At the end of it he would come back to the wooded gully off the beach, which made the first little headquarters of the last Australian division, with a sketch of the line as he had found it, and where each unit or fragment of a unit was. That is the way in which the position of the line in that hopeless tangle of scrub and ravine was placed, and it was the only way. And that is why the staff of the 1st Australian Division obtained such an enviable name with the rank and file of its command. Amidst the talk about staff and staff work on the peninsula, I never heard a disparaging word about that to which Glasfurd belonged...

One remembers that staff of the 1st Division when it was working in a wing of the Victoria Barracks in Melbourne before the separate units of the division had ever been brought together. Glasfurd was a Scottish officer of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, and had been lent to Australia to help in the training of our young army under the compulsory scheme. When General Bridges was given command of the force which Australia was sending to the war, he was allowed a free hand in choosing his staff, and Glasfurd was the one general staff officer whom he chose who was not an Australian.... General Glasfurd had done a great deal for Australian military training... He was very loyal to his service, and at the beginning he found it hard to bring himself to serve readily under what the British mind still sometimes regards as a "colonial", but from this he changed whole-heartedly. His whole enthusiasm was thrown into the brigade which he came to command. He had devoted his whole self to the 1st Division - his personal safety never entered his mind where there was work to be done for it. And he laid down his life in reconnoitring for his brigade. It was in reconnoitring the front line during battle that he had so often risked his life. And it was so that he died. An Australian General Officer told me, "Of all the men I have ever served with, he was the most whole-hearted in his devotion to duty. I have never known him to criticise and order, and in all the time I was with him I never knew him to think of himself when any duty lay before him."

Copy Research shows that the two Great War medals were originally accompanied by an official slip which stated: ‘The Victory Medal will be forwarded as soon as it is issued from the War Office.’ The 1914-15 Star and British War Medal were issued by the Australian authorities and it is possible that the Victory Medal was never received.

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