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Auction: 23002 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 49

The campaign group of three awarded to Lieutenant A. J. Powell, Machine Gun Corps, late Private, Gloucestershire Regiment, who served in North Russia in 1919 and captured rare photographs of that campaign

1914-15 Star (3146 Pte. A.J. Powell, Glouc. R.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. A.J. Powell.), good very fine (3)

Albert James Powell was born in December 1893 and served in France from June 1915 as a Private in the Gloucestershire Regiment. Transferred to the Machine Gun Corps and commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in October 1917, in May 1919 the 201st Battalion were called upon to make up an element of the British North Russia Relief Force. They were tasked with covering the withdrawal from Russia of British, American, and anti-Bolshevik forces - indeed, the unit appear to have been some of the very last British troops to leave Russian soil. Powell is additionally known post-war as an English cricketer, and died in Cornwall in 1979 at the age of 85.

Sold together with his personal photograph album, which offers a fascinating insight into a Subaltern's experiences of this unusual and little-known campaign. Titled to the front cover 'North Russia, as seen by the 201st. Bn. M.G.C., 1919' it comprises 15 pages (totalling 79 unpublished black-and-white photographs), each individually annotated underneath with a description of the image above - these include scenes of transport vessels; officers of the unit; the City of Archangel; travelling up the river Dvina; local inhabitants; and moments of leisure including duck-shooting on rafts. Several pages also contain a narrative explaining and contextualising the accompanying images. Front cover detached, some light water-damage to upper pages, but nevertheless a most important and rare archive of primary source material relating to the North Russia intervention.

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Sold for
£700

Starting price
£550