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Auction: 23001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 390

(x) The 1970 Knight Bachelor and 1945 Bronze Star group of seven awarded to Lord Seebohm, Royal Artillery, a banker who later did good work as a Peer in the House of Lords

Knight Bachelor's Badge, 1st Type breast Badge, silver-gilt and enamel (hallmarks for London 1947), in its fitted Royal Mint case of issue; 1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, with M.I.D. oakleaf; Efficiency Decoration, G.VI.R., reverse officially dated 1950; United States of America, Bronze Star, some contact wear to campaign awards, overall good very fine (7), sold together with a named Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors medal named 'Lord Seebohm' to the reverse, 9 carat gold (hallmarks for Sheffield 1983) in its Fattorini case of issue

Knight Bachelor London Gazette 10 March 1970.

Bronze Star London Gazette 8 November 1945.

Territorial Efficiency Decoration London Gazette 20 June 1950

Frederic Seebohm was born at Poynder's End, Hitchin, Hertfordshire on 18 January 1909, the son of Hugh and Leslie Seebohm. His grandfather (and namesake) was the famous historian Frederic Seebohm and an uncle on his mothers side was the Victoria Cross winner Captain Julian Gribble. Educated first at the Dragon School, Oxford before moving onto Leighton Park School and finally matriculating to Trinity College Cambridge, Seebohm read Economics. He left after only two years and joined Barclays Bank, Cambridge, his family having previously owned a bank in Hitchin that formed one of the constituent parts of Barclays. The bank posted him to Sheffield in 1932 where he was still working in 1938 when he joined the Territorial Army.

Commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1939, he attended Staff College in 1944 and was posted to Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel as a Staff Officer. His good work led to Seebohm being 'mentioned' on 19 April 1945 and later receiving the Bronze Star. With the war over he spent periods as local Director of the bank's branch office in Luton and Birmingham before becoming Director of the main board after the war. Joining the bank's overseas board in 1951 he became Chairman of the newly reformed Barclays Bank International.

Taking the role of President of the Institute of Bankers between 1966-68, this concluding in the same year that Seebohm's Committee on Local Authority Personal Social Services published its findings. Knighted in 1970, he was to be High Sheriff of Hertfordshire for 1970-71 - coincidentally a position previously held by his grandfather.

Aside from his financial interests Seebohm was renowned for his pioneering work with Social Services, his work in this field gaining increasing focus after he was made a Life Peer in 1972 as Baron Seebohm, sitting as an Independent. Seebohm served as chairman of the Joseph Rowntree Memorial Trust, and president of Age Concern, the National Institute of Social Work, the Royal Africa Society, and the Overseas Development Institute. Seebohm was tragically killed in a traffic accident near Sutton Scotney, Hampshire on 15 December 1990 and his wife died only thirteen days later; sold together with copied research including an MID list, an extract from the Archives of Barclays Bank and an entry from The Peerage website.

Subject to 5% tax on Hammer Price in addition to 20% VAT on Buyer’s Premium.

Sold for
£1,400

Starting price
£1400