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Auction: 19003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 800

A rare and interesting Rhodesian Legion of Merit group of six awarded to Major T. A. Wright, 15th Punjab Regiment, late Black Watch, who served in North Africa before being appointed the last General Manager of Rhodesia Railways

Rhodesia, Independent State (1965-79), Order of the Legion of Merit (O.L.M.), Civil Division, Officer's breast Badge, silver-gilt and enamel; Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Officer's breast Badge, silver and enamel; 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Territorial Force Efficiency Medal, G.VI.R., 1st issue, Southern Rhodesia (CR 1977. T/Major Trevor A. Wright), mounted court-style for display, light contact marks, very fine, scarce (7)

O.L.M. Southern Rhodesia Gazette 11 November 1971.

Only 126 Civil Division O.L.M.s were awarded, between 1970 and 1981.

Trevor Arnold Wright was born at Bulawayo on 16 March 1917, the son of George Albert and Mildred Eleanor Wright. His father worked for Rhodesia Railways as an engine driver, having served with the Royal Engineers during the Great War. The family emigrated to Bulawayo from East London, Cape Colony. Trevor's grandfather also drove engines, while his great-grandfather was an engineer. Educated at Milton High School, Bulawayo, he was a stalwart member of the town's Rover Scout Group. He joined Rhodesia Railways as a junior clerk in the accounts department in 1933, and was promoted to 'Clerk' in 1941. He enlisted at Bulawayo Training Camp on 4 June 1941, and was posted 'on commitment' to the 2nd Battalion, Black Watch in North Africa. He disembarked in Egypt on 24 September 1941. He then served in India as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 15th Punjab Regiment, rising to Captain on 26 January 1945. He appears in several group photographs with men of the 15th Punjabis. Stationed at Wana on the North-West Frontier, he was Brigade-Major by the war's end.

Wright returned to Bulawayo and on 4 March 1946 married Morag Ross Moore, with whom he fathered three children. Attesting for Territorial service, he was awarded the Efficiency Medal on 6 December 1946. He qualified as a chartered accountant and in March 1956 was appointed Chief Accounts and Finance Officer at Rhodesia Railways. In 1961 he became the company's first Regional Manager, Southern Region (Bulawayo). He was appointed its General Manager on 1 April 1964, the eleventh and last man to hold this appointment. The organisation comprised over 21,000 staff, and Wright was such an efficient organiser that his Headquarters at Bulawayo was nicknamed "The Kremlin" (Rhodesian Financial Gazette, 10 November 1972). For these services he was made an Officer of Rhodesia's Order of the Legion of Merit. In August 1975, he helped organise the important Constitutional Conference between representatives of the Rhodesian and Zambian governments. Symbolically, the meeting took place in a train carriage positioned half-way along the Victoria Falls Railway Bridge, so that the conference table was half in Rhodesia, half in Zambia. He retired on 1 April 1977. His obituary appeared in The Herald on 30 October 1991, and he was buried the next day at St. Mary's Anglican Church, Harare; sold with a folder of research.


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Sold for
£1,200

Starting price
£320