Lot Archive

Lot

№ 422

.

11 June 1996

Hammer Price:
£330

The Great War M.C. group of five awarded to Sir Neville Gass, K.B.E., M.C., Royal Artillery, late Chairman of British Petroleum
Military Cross, G.V.R.; 1914 Mons Star (1401 Pte., H.A.C.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. (Capt.); Belgian Croix de Guerre, very fine (5)

M.C. London Gazette 3 June, 1919.
Neville Archibald Gass was born in 1893 and was educated at Tonbridge School and at McGill University, Montreal. He joined the Honourable Artillery Company in August 1914 and served with them in France until the following May, when he was commissioned into the Royal Artillery. He served with “D” Battery, Royal Horse Artillery, 3rd Cavalry Brigade, 2nd Cavalry Division, Cavalry Corps, and was present at the battles of Ypres May 1915, Somme 1916, Arras April-May 1917, Cambrai Nov. to Dec. 1917 etc. He was Temporary Officer Commanding his Battery when it fired its final round on Armistice Day, within 1000 yards of the position from which it was one of the first to open fire in August 1914. Almost immediately after demobilization he went to the British Petroleum Company, first serving in London and then going to Persia, where he worked until 1934. In 1939 he was appointed managing director of the company, in 1956 deputy chairman, and in 1957 to the senior office. He was created C.B.E. in 1953, and K.B.E. in 1958. Sir Neville Gass died on 23 September, 1965.