A Great War D.S.O. group of five awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel N. B. MacLean, Canadian Garrison Artillery, late 52nd Battalion, Canadian Infantry (The North Ontario Regiment)

Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel; British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (A. Lt. Col. N. B. MacLean); Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937, very fine and better (5) £1200-1400

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to the Canadian Expeditonary Force 1914-1918.

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D.S.O. London Gazette 3 June 1918.

Neil Bruce Maclean, who was born in Bruce County, Ontario, in April 1883, completed his education at the University of Toronto and joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force in June 1915.

Advanced to the temporary rank of Major in May 1915, he was embarked for France in August 1916, where he joined the 52nd (North Ontario) Battalion, Canadian Infantry. Two months later, however, he returned to the U.K. ‘for the purpose of transferring to the Siege Artillery at Shorncliffe’, in which role he returned to active service as C.O. of 268th Siege Battery, Canadian Garrison Artillery, in February 1917, and won his D.S.O. and a brace of “mentions” (London Gazettes 11 December 1917 and 28 May 1918 refer). He ended the War with an appointment as Lieutenant-Colonel, 2nd Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery.

After being demobilised in July 1919, MacLean became a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Montreal, but he retained his military links with an appointment as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Canadian Engineers (Militia); sold with an original portrait photograph, together with copied service record and confirmation of the recipient’s entitlement to the Jubilee 1935 and Coronation 1937 Medals.