Previous Lot Next Lot

Auction: 22003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 289

Four: Lieutenant D. R. Tweedie, Middlesex Regiment, late Suez Canal Defences, Royal Flying Corps

1914-15 Star (Lieut. D. R. Tweedie); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Lieut. D. R. Tweedie); Egypt, Kingdom, Order of the Nile, 4th Class breast Badge, by Lattes, silver, silver-gilt and enamel, good very fine, with corresponding miniature awards (8)

Order of the Nile awarded 1917.

M.I.D. London Gazette 21 June 1916.

The best biography of Douglas Royle Tweedie is offered by a family article:

'He was born in Hertford on 3 April 1888. He attended the Loretto school in Edinburgh between 1902-05. Prior to his WW1 service he served with H.M. Egyptian Coastguards Administration from 1908, a post he held until 1924. Before the outbreak of the first World War, Roy Tweedie was stationed at Siwa oasis in the Qattara Depression on the edge of the Western Desert, an area that became well known some thirty years later in World War II through the activities of the Long Range Desert Group and as the southern pivot of the defence of Egypt against Rommel.

While stationed at Siwa Oasis, Roy with others such as Col Bagnold pioneered the techniques of desert travel in armoured cars that were to be successfully readopted in the North African campaigns of the 1940s by the Long Range Desert Group and others. His MIC has him serving in Egypt from 7 December 1914 and his MIC notes Canal Defences Royal Flying Corps serving from 1914-1917, then becoming an Intelligence Officer in the Western Desert with the Middlesex Regiment between 1917 -18. His Medals were sent to the Coastguard & Fisheries Service, Cairo, Egypt.

Later, because of his skills as an Arabist, Roy was also employed in the Arabian Desert during Allanby's advance to Jerusalem. On some occasions acting as observer and bomb-aimer in the primitive aircraft engaged with those forces; a picture of his plane and the citation for a successful bombing mission has survived. Just after the end of World War I, Roy became engaged to Ethelwyn Marjorie Chanter who lived in Braunton. She was the only child of Francis William Chanter, a civil engineer, who after a distinguished career in India had returned to the family home area of North Devon. Apart from having been responsible for the electrification of the city of Bombay, Chanter was best known locally as the man who engineered and initially managed the Barnstaple and Lynmouth Railway. It was a narrow gauge system which, although having been closed and the tracks lifted years ago, is still suited as one of the classic and best examples of a railway of this type.

The marriage of Douglas Royle Tweedie and Ethelwyn Marjorie Chanter took place in Braunton Parish Church on 5th July 1920. The young couple returned to Egypt and started their married life together living in Alexandria. Their first child, Paul Peregrine Tweedie was born there on 20th December 1921. Like many other serving officers when the post-war recession came, Roy was forced to take early retirement on pension from the Egyptian Service. That event in 1924 coincided with Roy's father, Arthur John Tweedie's retirement from business at Port Said. With a depression in England and the intiation of soldier-settler schemes in East and Central Africa for ex-soldiers seeking a new opportunity, Roy and his father visited Nyassaland and Kenya to assess the possibilities.
Norman Tweedie, Roy's brother, had started work in Nyassaland but it was decided that the brothers should concentrate their efforts in the Kitale (Trans Nzoia) District of North West Kenya. There, Father had made investments in farms, a hotel, and commerce including saw-milling. Some of these ventures prospered, others did not. He and his wife settled in Nzoia in 1924 and farmed coffee on the South East slopes of Mount Elgon. His wife was an artist as well as an amateur botanist and designed the EAWL National Embroidery Panel for the Trans Nzoia. In 1948 they went to live in the North East side of the mountain and here she discovered the pre-historic painting in the Kaboy cave near the Mbere river.

Tweedie's chief interest was Freemasonry and in 1966 he became District Grand Master of East Affrica. He eventually retired to Endebess in Kenya and died on 13 December 1970. his wife returned home and died at Burwash in East Sussex in 1982.'

For further family Medals, please see Lot 307.

Subject to 20% VAT on Buyer’s Premium. For more information please view Terms and Conditions for Buyers.

Sold for
£800

Starting price
£350