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Auction: 23001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 374

An outstanding 1920 C.B.E. group of ten to awarded to Surgeon E. S. Crispin, a Civil Surgeon During the Boer War, he was present for the Bahr-El-Ghazal Expedition and the Darfur Expedition of 1916, Crisping was later Director of the Sudan Medical Department 1915-22

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, 1st Type, Civil Division, Commander's (C.B.E.) neck Badge, silver-gilt and enamel; Queen's South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal (Civ. Surg. E.S. Crispin); 1914-15 Star (E.S. Crispin); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (E.S. Crispin); Defence Medal 1939-45; Khedive's Sudan 1896-1908, 1 clasp, Bahr-El-Ghazal 1900-02, unnamed as issued; Khedive's Sudan 1910-22, 1 clasp, Darfur 1916, clasp loose on riband, unnamed as issued; Egypt, Kingdom, Order of the Nile, Third Class neck Badge, 90mm including crown suspension x 65mm, silver-gilt, silver and enamel; Turkey, Ottoman Empire, Order of Osmania, 4th Class breast Badge, 85mm including Star and Crescent suspension x 65mm, silver, silver-gilt, and enamel, with rosette upon riband, lacquered, good very fine, housed in a glazed and gilt presentation case, by Spink & Son, London (10)

Provenance:
Spink, November 2016, when offered for Sale by Order of the Family.

C.B.E. London Gazette 24 September 1920 (Director, Soudan Medical Department, and Member of Governor-General's Council).

M.I.D. London Gazette 25 October 1916 (Sudan HQ) & 5 June 1919.

Egyptian Order of the Nile London Gazette 6 November 1917.

Turkish Order of Osmania London Gazette 28 June 1909 (Assistant Director of the Soudan Medical Department, Khartoum).

Edward Smyth Crispin was born at 6 Melbury Terrace, Marylebone in December 1874, the son of Alfred Trevor Crispin. Educated at Bradfield College and King's College, he qualified in 1898 and served as a volunteer Civil Surgeon during the Boer War and reportedly taken Prisoner of War (Medal & 3 clasps).

Crispin then served upon the Bahr-El-Ghazal Expedition, a party into the virtually unknown region under Miralai Sparkes Bey. The party consisted of 5 British Officers and 2 British Sergeants, 11 Egyptian Officers, an interpreter, a clerk, 84 regulars, 266 irregulars and 216 wives and children. They also took 100 men and women rescued from slavery in Omdurman to be returned to their native tribes. The expedition left Khartoum on 29 November 1900 heading south on the White Nile and boarded on three steamers (Zafir, Hafir and Tawfikieh).

Crispin was appointed to the Sudan Medical Service, as Principle Medical Officer to the Egyptian Army, 1902 and appointed Ministry of Quarantine Officer during the construction of Port Sudan, 1904-06. He was Assistant Director of Medical Department, Sudan, 1909 and married Edith Walker Wright, who died in childbirth in Port Sudan in February 1913. He was Director of the Medical Department, Sudan, 1915-22, also serving as President of the Central Sanitary Board.

During the Great War aboard the Hospital Ship Grantully Castle off Gallipoli and was present in the Lines of Communication during the Darfur Expedition 1916, earning a Mention in the Despatches and being awarded the Order of the Nile. Appointed to be a Member of the Governor General's Council in 1919 he retired in 1922, having completed over twenty years' service in total.

He was married to his second wife, Evelyn Cadogan (widow of Colonel Cadogan) in 1926 and was listed as an Agent to Lord Montagu of Beaulie in 1926. His wife Evelyn left him and married Lord O'Hagan in 1935 and during the Second World War Crispin served as an Air Raid Warden in London in 1940-42. Crispin died at sea coming home from South Africa aboard the S.S. Warwick Castle on 12 March 1958 and was buried at sea, his obituary being published in the British Medical Journal. His work The Prevention and Treatment of Disease in the Tropics. A handbook for officials and travellers compiled chiefly for the use of officials in the Sudan, was published by Charles Griffin in 1912.

A Special Collection of 54 images taken during the construction of Port Sudan, South Sudan and Egypt by Crispin are in the collection of Durham University Library (GB 0033 SAD, refers), copies included on a CD with the Lot.

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Sold for
£2,600

Starting price
£2200