An unusual Great War Mesopotamia operations C.M.G., C.B.E. group of eleven awarded to Brigadier-General C. J. Hawker, Coldstream Guards
The Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, C.M.G., Companion’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel; The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, C.B.E. (Military) Commander’s 1st type neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel; 1914-15 Star (Col. C. J. Hawker, C. Gds.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Brig. Gen. C. J. Hawker); Jubilee 1897; Coronation 1911; Khedive’s Sudan 1896-1908, 1 clasp, Sudan 1899, unnamed; Turkey, Order of the Medjidie, Third Class neck badge, silver, gold and enamel; Turkey, Order of Osmanieh, Third Class neck badge, silver, silver-gilt and enamel; British Red Cross Society’s Medal for the Balkan War 1912-13, clasp, Turkey, and upper bar ‘Balkan War 1912-13’, silver-gilt and enamel, the reverse officially inscribed, ‘Col. C. J. Hawker’, enamel damage to the Osmanieh and B.R.C.S. Medal, and minor official corrections to naming on the British War Medal, otherwise generally good very fine (11) £1200-1500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals to the Coldstream Guards, R.F.C., R.N.A.S. and R.A.F. formed by the late Tom Baugh.

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C.M.G. London Gazette 1 January 1918:

‘For services rendered in connection with military operations in Mesopotamia.’

C.B.E. London Gazette 1 January 1919:

‘For services rendered in connection with military operations in Mesopotamia.’

Claude Julian Hawker was born in January 1867 and was educated at Cheam School and Eton. Commissioned in the 3rd (Militia) Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, in March 1887, he gained appointment as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards in May 1892 and was awarded the Jubilee Medal in 1897 as a Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion.

Advanced to Captain in September 1898, he was attached to the Egyptian Army from January 1899 until January 1909, in which period he participated in the Sudan operations of 1899 (Khedive’s Sudan Medal & clasp), commanded the Camel Corps from 1904-05 (Order of Medjidie, 3rd Class London Gazette 10 February 1905), served as Governor of Suakin in 1906, and commanded the Red Sea Military District 1907-09, latterly in the rank of Major.

Having then served briefly back in the U.K., Hawker was attached to the Turkish Gendarmerie as Senior British Officer, in which capacity he served from May 1910 until September 1914, including work on behalf of the British Red Cross Society during the Balkan War 1912-13, gaining advancement to Lieutenant-Colonel and elevation to the 2nd Class of the Order of Medjidie (London Gazette 9 May 1911), in addition to his B.R.C.S’s Balkan War Medal, as verified on the Society’s Roll of Special War Badges (Appendix VI, 17 June 1913).

Soon after the renewal of hostilities, Hawker was given command of the 10th (Service) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, but he transferred to the General Staff in December 1914 and remained employed in that capacity until being appointed to the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force as Provost Marshal in August 1915. Having then witnessed active service in Gallipoli, he transferred to the Mesopotamian front in May 1916 and, in the temporary rank of Brigadier-General, served as Military Governor of Baghdad from March 1917 until November 1918, gaining the C.M.G. and C.B.E., in addition to being four times mentioned in despatches (London Gazettes 28 January 1916, 12 March and 27 August 1918, and 30 April 1919 refer).

Hawker next served on the Staff out in Egypt, Palestine and Syria (1918-21), in which period he was Director of the Central Relief Committee for Egypt in February-June 1919, a member of the Allenstein Plebiscite Commission in 1920, and the Upper Silesian Commission 1920-21, in addition to acting as Base Commandant at Bierut.

Placed on the Retired List as an Honorary Brigadier-General in November 1921, Hawker, ‘whose respect for institutions and decorum in public life was measured by his dislike of advertisement and self-interest’, died in September 1936.